ACCP Member Spotlight

ACCP’s Member Spotlight serves to highlight and provide visibility to ACCP members with regards to their career path, contributions, and experience with ACCP. To nominate an ACCP member to be featured, please visit www.accp.com/membership/spotlight.aspx.

Nick Peters, Pharm.D., BCCCP, BCPS, is a critical care and nutrition support clinical pharmacy specialist and PGY1 residency program coordinator at Suburban Hospital – Johns Hopkins Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland. In addition, Peters is the Recognition Committee chair for the ACCP Critical Care PRN and is the only pharmacist representative on the Society of Critical Care Medicine In-Training Selection committee. He earned his Pharm.D. degree from Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana; completed a PGY1 residency at TriStar Centennial Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, and a PGY2 specialty residency in critical care at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia; and earned Board of Pharmacy Specialties certification in both pharmacotherapy and critical care.

Peters recognizes that his mentors have shaped him into the pharmacist he is today. He specifically wishes to highlight the guidance and support he received from Christopher Paciullo, Pharm.D., FCCP; Stacey Folse, Pharm.D., MPH; and Alley Killian, Pharm.D., while he was a PGY2 resident at Emory University Hospital. Through these mentors, he learned that he "could contribute to clinical pharmacy through leadership, mentorship, research, multidisciplinary education, and professional organization involvement in addition to providing clinical services." Peters also credits them with instilling in him a sense of courage and confidence that helped set him on his professional path.

Peters has been an ACCP member since he was a pharmacy student and actively seeks out ways to give back to the College and the profession. In his words, ACCP has "given me the opportunity to meet, network with, learn from, and develop friendships with pharmacists from across the country." Moreover, "the education offered through ACCP has helped me grow as a clinical pharmacist, primary investigator, preceptor, and educator." Peters has served ACCP as an abstract, curriculum vitae, and poster reviewer, and he is active in the Critical Care PRN.

In addition to his professional pursuits, Peters' other passion is traveling. He has set a personal goal of visiting all seven continents and, to date, has visited three of the seven continents with plans to visit his fourth in the coming year. He believes in the power of positive thinking and imparting happiness toward others and aims to make memories, not only within his professional activities, but also personally, all over the world.

January 2017

Daniel Witt, Pharm.D., is a clinical professor and vice chair of the Department of Pharmacotherapy and assistant dean of clinical affairs at the University of Utah College of Pharmacy. He earned his BSPharm degree at the University of Utah and his Pharm.D. degree at the University of Washington (UW). He completed a clinical pharmacy residency at the UW Medical Center and Harborview Medical Center and an advanced residency in primary care and family medicine at the UW Medical Center. Witt is a Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist and a Fellow of ACCP. He serves on the board of directors for the Anticoagulation Forum (the Medical & Scientific Advisory Board of the National Blood Clot Alliance) and is a member of ASHP and the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis.

Witt specializes in anticoagulation therapy management at the University of Utah's thrombosis clinic. He is also responsible for supporting the Department of Pharmacotherapy's clinical enterprise and provides support to its clinical faculty. He is the chair of the newly created Pharm.D. project committee at University of Utah College of Pharmacy, which was created for Pharm.D. students to develop important research skills such as professional writing, critical thinking, and project management. Witt has written or cowritten over 90 journal articles and 11 book chapters and has given numerous lectures for continuing education programs. He was a panel member for the 2012 CHEST Consensus Guidelines for Antithrombotic Therapy and is currently a panel member for the venous thromboembolism guidelines being developed by the American Society of Hematology.

Witt's research interests focus on providing practical information on the use of anticoagulation therapy to front-line practitioners and patients. He is passionate about conducting anticoagulation therapy–related research projects focused on (1) documenting the clinical and economic impact of clinical pharmacy services, (2) providing optimal therapy management, and (3) providing evidence-based practical solutions to providers.

Witt states that his involvement with anticoagulation clinical practice was incidental. He did not intend to practice in this clinical area and initially believed that anticoagulation was uninteresting. However, he discovered how rewarding and challenging anticoagulation therapy can be and developed a passion for this clinical practice setting. Witt offers this advice to young pharmacists:

From my experiences, I would encourage young pharmacists not to try and plan out their careers too carefully. Be open to an unexpected detour every now and then that might open up a whole new world of the profession that you never imagined you would be interested in.

Witt states that many people have influenced him in his career. The two mentors with the most significant impact are Alan Ellsworth, Pharm.D., at UW and Dennis Helling, Pharm.D., recently retired from Kaiser Permanente Colorado. Ellsworth exposed Witt to the many opportunities available to clinical pharmacists and helped Witt develop his love for clinical research and ability to create research projects from clinical scenarios. Witt is grateful that Helling encouraged him to join the pharmacy team at Kaiser Permanente Colorado after his specialty residency. Witt credits Helling with providing significant mentorship and coaching that allowed Witt to develop the Clinical Pharmacy Anticoagulation Service and the Clinical Pharmacy Research Team at Kaiser Permanente.

On a personal note, Witt is involved with the Boy Scouts of America, "a wonderful organization that has provided me with opportunities to enjoy adventures in the outdoors and has provided me with some of the best leadership training available."

November 2016

Israa Fadhil Yaseen, BScPharm, BCPS, is completing the fourth and final year of her clinical pharmacy residency at the teaching hospitals of Medical City in Baghdad, Iraq. Yaseen graduated in 2006 from the University of Mosul College of Pharmacy in Iraq. After graduation, she worked in the pediatric hematology-oncology unit at the Ibn Al-Atheer Teaching Hospital for Children in Mosul for 2 years. She then became the director of the Drug Information Center at the hospital, where she was ranked first among other directors in the city. After working in an outpatient pharmacy for an additional 2 years at a rural health care center, Yaseen enrolled in her residency program in 2012.

During her residency training, Yaseen has trained in the cardiac care unit, conducted research on clopidogrel nonresponsiveness in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention, and enrolled in the Educational Training in Total Parenteral Nutrition program at the American University of Beirut. In July 2016, she became a Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist—the first female pharmacist in Iraq to hold the certification. Because of her achievements during her residency, Yaseen is now a candidate to become a Clinical Pharmacy Fellow in the Iraqi Board for Medical Specializations. In addition to her residency training, Yaseen is enrolled as an investigator in the EURObservational Research Programme of the European Society of Cardiology. Furthermore, she is the only resident member on a specialized physician committee working to design the Baghdad Dyslipidemia Protocol—the first dyslipidemia management protocol to be established in Iraq. Her professional affiliations include ACCP, where she is a member of the Cardiology PRN; the European Society of Cardiology; the American College of Cardiology; the International Society of Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy; and the Medical Education Committee of the cardiology department in Baghdad Teaching Hospital.

Yaseen’s decision to pursue clinical pharmacy was influenced largely by the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001. After achieving exceptional scores in high school, Yaseen had narrowed her career options to becoming an orthodontist, like her father, or a pharmacist, which was actually her father’s dream for her. After seeing the events of September 11 unfold in America and asking God for guidance, Yaseen decided to pursue pharmacy, with the hope of becoming involved in the Red Cross or another humanitarian organization. “I decided to become a pharmacist to help people and save lives all over the world,” she says.

Yaseen has had many mentors throughout her training and career. One such mentor is Dr. Lika’a Al-Kzayer, a pediatrician and head of the pediatric hematology-oncology unit at the Ibn Al-Atheer Teaching Hospital for Children. Yaseen states:

Dr. Al-Kzayer showed me the real meaning of teamwork. She is so faithful and sympathetic with patients, and this increased my interest in clinical work, especially in helping children patients with cancer.

Another such mentor is interventional cardiologist and president of Scientific Council of Cardiology, Professor Hasan Ali Al-Farhan. Of Al-Farhan, her supervisor in the cardiac care unit during residency training, Yaseen says, “He trusted me from the beginning and has encouraged and supported me from the moment I met him.” They have collaborated on several teams and projects, and Yaseen’s passion for cardiology is largely the result of Al-Farhan’s influence. “Dr. Al-Farhan increased my interest in cardiology and believes in the importance of clinical pharmacists in cardiovascular teamwork.” Finally, Yaseen’s father has played a vital role in her success. He instilled in her a passion for teaching and gave Yaseen her first opportunity to teach a didactic lecture on antibiotic and analgesic use in dentistry.

Yaseen expects her list of achievements to continue growing. Professionally, she wants to continue making an impact in the field of cardiology and hopes to be one of the first pharmacists to become board certified in cardiology through the Board of Pharmacy Specialties. In addition, she plans to get involved with humanitarian organizations, become fluent in French and Spanish, and travel the world.

September 2016

Edward Van Matre, Pharm.D., is a critical care fellow at the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Aurora, Colorado. He received his B.S. degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma, in 2010 and his Pharm.D. degree from the University of Colorado in 2014. After graduation, Van Matre completed a PGY1 pharmacy practice residency at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky, and a PGY2 specialty residency in critical care at the University of Colorado.

After completing his PGY2 residency, he began his critical care fellowship at the University of Colorado. This fellowship is multifaceted with a primary focus on clinical and benchtop research, specifically neurocritical and medical intensive care, as well as direct clinical patient care and didactic teaching. He is also currently enrolled in the M.S. degree program in clinical science at the University of Colorado. His goals on completing this program are to pursue a faculty position at a school of pharmacy and academic medical center and advance the practice of pharmacy and pharmaceutical application in critically ill patients through research.

Van Matre was drawn to clinical pharmacy because of his family’s values of altruism and service to the community. His mother is an emergency medicine nurse, and his father is a police officer. Spending countless meals and holidays with his family in an emergency department break room or a police station bullpen, Van Matre knew it was never a question of if he wanted to serve the community but how he would serve the community. He was originally drawn to the aspects of chemistry and biochemistry in pharmacy, but he took note of the profession’s evolving impact within hospital-based clinical settings. On entering pharmacy school, he recognized his ability to make quick decisions on the basis of partial or imperfect data, which drew him to the inpatient setting. He found this setting very rewarding because he could see the direct effects of clinician decisions when working as part of an interdisciplinary team. He was eventually led to critical care when he observed the immediate impact of pharmacotherapy on patient care. He continues to be driven in this field to use his knowledge and apply it through the scientific method to change practice. He hopes to further clinical pharmacy within the critical care setting through scholarship, clinical practice, and education of the next generation of clinical pharmacists.

Van Matre has been guided by a large group of mentors in his pharmacy school, residencies, and fellowship. Van Matre states:

This group of mentors is as diverse as the membership of ACCP, from junior ambulatory care faculty to fellows of the Society of Critical Care Medicine. They have all invested countless hours providing feedback, providing ideas, being excellent practice role models, and, above all else, listening.

He has particularly appreciated their ability to relate to him on both a personal and a professional level. Through them, he has learned how to lead, offer encouragement to others with a quiet comment, and balance his work and home life. He is very thankful for them, whom he credits as having helped make him a better pharmacist, researcher, educator, and husband.

On a personal note, one of his life goals is to hike all of Colorado’s 53 “fourteeners”—mountains 14,000 feet in elevation or higher. Because he grew up in Oklahoma, he did not have many opportunities to experience mountainous terrain. He particularly enjoys hiking the fourteeners because it provides a significant physical and mental challenge. Van Matre reflects:

Meeting these challenges allows me to step out into nature and helps to provide mental clarity in my everyday life. And who can’t beat the feeling of standing on top of the world!

July 2016

Sonak Pastakia, Pharm.D., MPH, BCPS, is an associate professor of pharmacy practice at Purdue University College of Pharmacy, an adjunct assistant professor at Indiana University School of Medicine, and a visiting lecturer at Moi University School of Medicine in Eldoret, Kenya. He practices as a full-time public health pharmacist based in Eldoret. Pastakia completed his Pharm.D. degree at Temple University School of Pharmacy and both a PGY1 and a PGY2 residency in HIV/infectious diseases at the University of North Carolina Hospitals. In addition, he earned an MPH degree at Harvard University School of Public Health and is on track to complete a Ph.D. degree with a focus on health economics at the University of Warwick in Coventry, UK, by the end of 2016.

In his current position as a public health pharmacist in Eldoret, Pastakia focuses his efforts on addressing the needs of underserved populations residing throughout rural western Kenya. He works with Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH)—one of the largest HIV treatment programs in sub-Saharan Africa, with over 150,000 ever-enrolled patients with HIV receiving care at over 500 facilities. Pastakia serves in several capacities, including as co-chair of the pharmacy working group, collaborator with the chronic disease management program (focused on diabetes and hypertension), principal investigator on a nationwide counterfeit detection program, principal investigator on the largest gestational diabetes study in a low- and middle-income country setting, and board member for a street youth drop-in center. Through his participation in the AMPATH program, he has helped AMPATH transition from an HIV-focused program to a comprehensive program focused on the many health and societal issues faced by rural, resource-constrained patients in western Kenya. In addition to his work in Kenya, he develops novel models of care delivery in India to increase access to underserved rural populations.

Pastakia is passionate about his work and devotes much time to community service in Kenya, including helping to implement several unique models that incorporate high-priority services like microfinance and agricultural support into a portable group-based health care delivery model. This model, Bridging Income Generation with Group Integrated Care (BIGPIC), has improved health and economic outcomes in the recently completed pilots. Moreover, he has played a role in implementing a novel approach to addressing the needs of street youths in western Kenya. Street youths are immersed within a practical educational model (a living laboratory) that teaches about the latest agriculture, energy, and engineering technologies to help them prepare for the jobs of tomorrow and successful reintegration back into the community. This educational model includes the use of remote-controlled drones to streamline farming activities, fabrication of utility vehicles for rural terrains, and creation of a permaculture farm to enrich the soil for future farming efforts.

When discussing what has most influenced his career, Pastakia states:

One of the things that I have marveled at throughout my career is the immense resilience of underserved populations. When these populations are forced to thrive in situations where nothing is easy or given, they consistently demonstrate a resourcefulness, for which I’ve developed an immense appreciation.

Pastakia goes on to state that his career has also been influenced by his desire to ease the burden these populations face so that they can redirect their resourcefulness toward other community-enriching activities. Addressing health needs is of vital importance, but Pastakia challenges us to think broader than this—programs that solely focus on the traditional elements of health care have a tendency to come up short if they don’t simultaneously address the basic needs for food and income security. He feels strongly that this “bigger-picture view” spans far beyond the traditional practice of clinical pharmacy and has largely influenced the trajectory of his career. Similarly, Pastakia offers this advice to trainees:

Try to rethink health care around the constraints that the populations we are trying to serve face, rather than continuing to build health care services around the interests of the providers delivering care. Instead of treating the small proportion of the population that is able to visit stationary facilities, we must figure out better ways to engage entire populations to maximize the clinical outcomes we desire.

Pastakia describes these simple realizations as the primary guiding principles for the many impactful programs he has helped develop in western Kenya and notes that these skills of adaptability will be crucial in a world with ever-growing limitations in resources.

May 2016

Marcia Buck, Pharm.D., B.S., is currently ACCP president-elect. She earned her degrees from Purdue University and completed a pediatric residency and fellowship at the Medical University of South Carolina. Currently, she holds numerous job titles: clinical coordinator for pediatrics and residency program director for the pediatric PGY2 at the University of Virginia (UVA) Health System; associate professor of pediatrics at the UVA School of Medicine; and clinical professor at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy. She has received several practice and teaching awards, including the UVA McLemore Birdsong Award for Excellence in Teaching. Examples of her multidisciplinary role in education include precepting PGY1 and PGY2 critical care and solid organ transplant pharmacy residents; training medical students, residents, and fellows; and participating in the pharmacy and nursing didactic and experiential education programs.

Buck credits Michael Reed, Pharm.D., FCCP, FCP, for shaping the way she practices and for her level of commitment to the profession. She was already an ACCP member when they met, but he encouraged her to expand her involvement. She started with her first committee appointment, went on to chair the Pediatrics Practice and Research Network (PRN), served on the Board of Regents, represented ACCP on the panel to develop the pediatric petition for the Board of Pharmacy Specialties and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ Task Force on Collaborative Practice, and is now the College’s president-elect.

“I’ve gained so much from serving in the organization,” she says. “I’ve had the opportunity to work with and learn from pediatric pharmacy leaders.” Moreover, “being a PRN member and serving on committees has allowed me to develop friendships with colleagues from institutions throughout the U.S. and Canada.”

With her background and varied experience, she continues to give back to the organization.

“As a clinical pharmacist working in an academic medical center without a school of pharmacy, I also bring a slightly different perspective to conversations about inter-professional practice, education and research that I hope will add value to many of ACCP’s current initiatives.”

Like her service to the profession and to ACCP, her professional and scholarly contributions continue to grow. She has published articles in many peer-reviewed journals, including Pharmacotherapy, and has written chapters for the Pharmacotherapy Self-Assessment Program (PSAP). She also produces a monthly open-access newsletter, Pediatric Pharmacotherapy, which is published through the UVA Department of Pediatrics. As coeditor for the Pediatric Self-Assessment Program (PedSAP), she aims to provide an effective tool for recertification. With each experience, she has grown as a writer and encourages leaders in our field to mentor junior professionals in their publishing career.

Writing is a true passion for Buck. Recently, she put her skills to the test by writing a book about the fascinating history of the antique house she owns and shares with her husband. Originally built as a tavern in the mid-1700s, Buck’s house belonged to one of Thomas Jefferson’s sisters and her husband, and Buck has journal entries written by Jefferson about going there for dinner and entertainment. The transition from pharmacy-related therapeutic reviews to narrative prose is not exactly seamless, however, and Buck admits that a friend deemed her first draft “a great cure for insomnia.” She is working hard to address these comments and strives to write a story that you cannot put down.

March 2016

Andrew Abe, Pharm.D., is a clinical pharmacist specializing in managed care and drug information at AlohaCare in Honolulu, Hawaii. AlohaCare is a local nonprofit health plan that provides services to the underserved population of Hawaii. Abe works with pharmacists and technicians to process medication prior authorizations and manages the Medicare and Medicaid formulary for AlohaCare. He enjoys using the drug information and literature evaluation skills he gained in both pharmacy school and fellowship training to appropriately determine the medical necessity of a recommended therapy.

Abe earned his Pharm.D. degree at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, in 2011. After graduation, he completed a 2-year research fellowship in drug information and evidence-based practice at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. During his fellowship, he served as a drug information rotation preceptor to advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) students and assisted in managing the hospital formulary. His research interests concentrated on dietary supplements and relevant drug information for practicing pharmacists. After completing his fellowship program, he accepted a position at the University of Kansas (KU) as a drug information specialist responsible for managing the drug information center. In addition, as a clinical assistant professor at KU, he taught the drug information and biostatistics course and an elective Medicare course, served as a preceptor to APPE students, and was the faculty adviser for the KU Kappa Psi chapter.

The decision to work in drug information, academia, and managed care came from his desire to keep up to date on new medications and their impact on patient care. Abe states that this was not always his career path in pharmacy school because he was unaware of the many opportunities available, but he liked the idea of being a career student (albeit without midterms and finals, of course). While on his rotations, he explored options within pharmacy and found gratification in making clinical decisions—based on evidence—that would have a large impact on patient populations. Abe states:

When I discovered that there was a career in pharmacy doing just that, I worked hard to make sure my training and experience made me qualified. I feel fortunate that my career has allowed me to be a lifelong student with the ability to positively impact patient medication therapy.

Abe credits his involvement with the Kappa Psi Gamma Nu chapter at the University of the Pacific for influencing his career the most. “A lot of who and where I am as a clinical pharmacist has revolved around my involvement with Kappa Psi.” He acknowledges his fraternity brothers for providing excellent guidance on how to be successful in school and for offering advice on a variety of career paths and training opportunities beyond earning the Pharm.D. degree. “I can honestly say that through Kappa Psi I have made friends and colleagues at every step of my career. Their mentorship during my career has been instrumental to my successes.”

Involvement with ACCP and its Drug Information Practice and Research Network (DI PRN) has enabled Abe to form relationships with like-minded clinical pharmacists. Abe recognizes that although all pharmacy organizations have their benefits, ACCP provides an opportunity to collaborate with clinical pharmacists who share his passion for drug information, which has been instrumental in helping him develop his personal clinical practice. He appreciates the valuable time-saving advice he has received from members of the DI PRN. Abe adds that the PRN’s e-mail list and networking meetings have enabled him to communicate with leaders in his field, helping him grow all aspects of his practice. Even though Abe is relatively new to ACCP, he is determined to give back more than he has received. Abe contributes to the College by reviewing curricula vitae, participating in the DI PRN, and being involved in committees.

January 2016

Craig Beavers, Pharm.D., graduated in 2009 from the University of Kentucky (UK) College of Pharmacy and completed a PGY1 pharmacy practice residency and a PGY2 cardiology pharmacy residency at UK Albert B. Chandler Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. Beavers is a clinical pharmacist and the cardiology pharmacy residency program director at TriStar Centennial Medical Center and the corporate director of cardiovascular services for the Hospital Corporation of America. He has worked as adjunct faculty for Lipscomb University College of Pharmacy, University of Tennessee College of Pharmacy, and UK College of Pharmacy. Beavers currently serves as the co-chair of the clinical pharmacist workgroup of the American College of Cardiology and as a member of the Cardiovascular Team Council and Surviving Acute Myocardial Infarction Steering Committee. He is the first pharmacist to be a Cardiovascular Professional for the Society for Cardiac Angiography and Interventions and serves on its quality committee. He has served as the vice chair and chair of the ACCP Cardiology PRN Student and Resident Committee and currently serves as the PRN’s secretary/treasurer. He has published numerous papers, abstracts, and textbook chapters with a focus on cardiovascular pharmacotherapy. He is board certified in pharmacotherapy with added qualifications in cardiology and is a certified anticoagulation care provider. He is a fellow of the American Heart Association and an associate of the American College of Cardiology.

As a cardiovascular clinical pharmacist, Beavers serves adult acute care cardiovascular patients in the coronary care unit and wards and the cardiac catheterization laboratory. In this position, he can participate in physician rounds, assist with quality improvement, provide patient education, and provide training and education to pharmacy residents, pharmacy students, and cardiology fellows and interns. Beavers provides lectures and other services as an adjunct faculty member. Because his position allows for research and other academic pursuits, he is currently enrolled in a Ph.D. degree program in clinical and translational science.

When discussing who influenced his career the most, Beavers states, “I found that the world around me, past and present, provides constant influence and motivation. First and foremost, my family has a strong pull on my life.” He explains:

My drive for success comes in efforts to support my family and in return, my family provides me the grounding I often need. I would not be half the man I am today without my wife, daughter, mother, father, brothers, and others. Beyond this, there are so many people who do amazing things, even more amazing than anything I think I have done, that I aspire to model. People I work with or admire provide me confidence to be able to accomplish any dream; knowing the things they have faced or how they get things done. I find it important to be well-rounded and often find influence in historical figures, such as John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and Walt Disney to name a few, who worked hard and came from nothing.

Beavers would advise people, regardless of practice, profession, or background, to be open to all sources of inspiration and continue to learn. He says, “The world is full of glorious people, events, music, art, books, theater, sports, and ideas that can be applied to your daily life; you just need to be open to them.” He challenges others to set daily learning goals and goals for keeping up-to-date. He states:

I would challenge everyone to be open-minded when approaching anything. You will find the biggest limitation in life can be yourself. Sometimes you have to cast a wide net to catch some fish. Finally, be willing to take calculated risks.

Beavers participates annually in the American Heart Association’s Heart Walk as a local team leader/captain and assists with fundraising. He and his wife hope to start a Dolly Parton Imagination Library program in Central Kentucky, which provides one free book a month to all children 0–5 years of age who participate. He aspires to visit all 50 states and learn to play the piano.

November 2015

Deeter Neumann is pursuing his Pharm.D. degree, with an emphasis in leadership and research, at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy with an expected graduation date of May 2016. He received his B.S. degree in genetics from the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 2009.

Throughout his time at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy, Neumann has been engaged in numerous organizations and has been a member of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy since the first year of his professional studies. He was actively involved with chartering the Minnesota Student College of Clinical Pharmacy and then served as president the following year. Neumann currently serves as a member at-large for the 2015–2016 ACCP National Student Network Advisory Committee.

Outside the college of pharmacy, Neumann is one of the lead pharmacist-interns at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, a 629-bed quaternary/tertiary care community teaching hospital. As a lead intern, he focuses on incorporating 19 interns into the hospital’s drug distribution and medication reconciliation services. In addition, Neumann works in the emergency department and various patient care units completing medication history interviews. In this capacity, he assesses patients’ home medication regimens for possible drug-related admissions and provides recommendations for optimizing pharmacotherapy. Neumann is also a pharmacist-intern at Fairview Home Infusion of Fairview Pharmacy Services. In this role, he has been trained in sterile compounding and preparing outpatient parenteral medications in a variety of administration devices.

On graduation, Neumann intends to further develop his clinical knowledge, leadership abilities, and research skills by completing a PGY1 pharmacy practice residency. After completing the PGY1, Neumann fully expects to specialize his clinical practice by completing a PGY2 residency in oncology.

Neumann’s interest in pharmacotherapy began during his undergraduate studies in genetics, immunology, and physiology. An introduction to pharmacology course stimulated his curiosity about pharmacologic treatment and pharmacogenomics. Neumann became interested in oncology pharmacy when he studied the role of genetics and immunology in malignancies and potential future treatment options.

Neumann credits Drs. Todd Sorensen, Rebecca Fahrenbruch, Debra Skaar, and Pamala Jacobson with positively influencing his professional development. Sorensen’s Leading Change in Pharmacy course taught him the importance of self-reflection; Fahrenbruch challenged him to be involved within the college of pharmacy as well as professional organizations, and he continues to serve as a mentor; Skaar, a faculty liaison for ACCP and a strong advocate for the College, encouraged his involvement and leadership within the organization; and Jacobson challenged him to expand his knowledge base while continuously reinforcing the importance of discipline and self-motivation.

Neumann’s advice to all student pharmacists interested in clinical pharmacy is to spend time shadowing pharmacists in areas that stimulate their interest. In addition to providing didactic and experiential education, these experiences can help narrow potential career paths and provide an opportunity to find a mentor. Neumann emphasizes that his mentors have challenged both his professional and his personal abilities, and the mentor-mentee relationship has been an unrivaled source of wisdom for him. He stresses that this relationship is reciprocal because he believes the mentor finds satisfaction from observing professional growth.

Neumann’s life goal is to travel the world to enjoy all the exotic places it has to offer. He hopes to initiate his travels soon after finishing his residency training with a trip to the Galápagos Islands to observe the variety of wildlife that inhabit the archipelago.

September 2015

Tamara Malm, Pharm.D., MPH, BCPS, is an assistant professor of pharmacy practice and administration at the University of Saint Joseph in Hartford, Connecticut. She serves as a preceptor for the ambulatory care rotation for pharmacy students in the adult primary care clinic at Yale-New Haven Hospital. This clinic provides many services, including hypertension, addiction, diabetes, anticoagulation, and urgent care, but most of her time is focused in the transitional care clinic. Developing clinical pharmacy services in the transitional care clinic was the focus of her PGY2 research project, which has turned into an extremely rewarding position. The primary goal of the clinic is to provide continuity of care for patients between the hospital and home. Important issues such as medication accessibility, affordability, and education are addressed at follow-up appointments with a multidisciplinary team consisting of an attending and resident physician, licensed practical nurse, social worker, pharmacist, and pharmacy student. Malm aims to expand this service during the next year by adding home and virtual visits by pharmacists, pharmacy students, and residents to reach even more patients during critical transitions. Malm believes that educating patients on their medications and making interventions on medication discrepancies keeps her focused on the significance of her position, while educating pharmacy students and asking meaningful research questions helps expand her breadth of knowledge.

Malm’s journey to pharmacy began when she packed up her horse, cat, and personal belongings to move to Lexington, Kentucky, for undergraduate training at the University of Kentucky. She fell in love with the Bluegrass state and decided to stay and complete both her Pharm.D. and MPH degrees in 2013. The clinical challenge of her neurocritical care experiential rotation drove her to pursue postgraduate training. She completed a PGY1 residency program at Vidant Medical Center in Greenville, North Carolina. With determination, persistence, and leadership, she successfully completed her research project, “Ensuring Safety and Accuracy of Admission Medication Histories in a Technician-Run Service.” Her mentors Kathey Rumley, Pharm.D., Leigh Gurley, Pharm.D., and Carol Labadie, Pharm.D., taught her how to manage others, develop and redesign a clinical service, track and trend medication errors, provide constructive feedback, and relay important results to key stakeholders. Malm believes the PGY1 residency program was one of her most rewarding experiences thus far, and over the course of that year, she recognized her strengths in leadership, management, and medication safety. Malm completed a PGY2 residency in health-system pharmacy administration at Yale-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut, and then achieved credentialing as a Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist (BCPS). She is extremely thankful to all of her mentors during both her PGY1 and PGY2 residencies, who helped develop her clinical management acumen and provided her with challenging opportunities at every turn.

As a student, Malm recognized during her first ACCP Annual Meeting that ACCP is a unique and special professional pharmacy organization. Malm believes that there is so much to be gained at each ACCP meeting, including opportunities for organizational involvement, networking, idea sharing, and expanding therapeutics knowledge. She attends a wide variety of programming sessions at each ACCP meeting, but her favorite sessions include recent updates in drug therapy, new and innovative practice models, and the best paper presentations. She is inspired by the range of experience among the pharmacist attendees at the sessions, and this motivates her to push the boundaries of pharmacy practice. Malm has been very active in ACCP since joining several years ago. She recently completed her term as the vice chair of the ACCP Resident Advisory Committee (RAC), where she helped develop informational videos about ACCP and the RAC. Furthermore, she is actively involved in increasing both student and resident involvement in the Clinical Administration PRN, career roundtables, and premeeting symposium at the ACCP Annual Meeting. Malm is still a new practitioner, but “ACCP has already established a permanent place in [my] professional life and [I look] forward to contributing to the College even more in the future.”

Malm believes that the most underserved patients in the United States are those with a language barrier. Through her work with underserved populations in Connecticut, she has been inspired to learn Spanish to help patients understand their own health and medications. She hopes to combine her love of traveling and clinical pharmacy to help patients outside the United States.

Malm realized that she was meant for clinical pharmacy and that she truly loved her job when she was told “I don’t know what we would have done without a pharmacist here.” This statement provides her with enough fuel to get through all of the tough days and continue learning and growing as a practitioner. Malm advises new practitioners to always say yes at the beginning of their career. She feels passionately that because there are so many different career paths in pharmacy, you owe it to yourself to try everything. She understands that taking on many different projects may stretch you a little thin but believes that you should push yourself to your limits to see what you can handle.

July 2015

Alexandre Chan, Pharm.D., MPH, FCCP, BCPS, BCOP, is assistant head and associate professor at the Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Science at National University of Singapore (NUS). He is also jointly appointed as an associate professor at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore and adjunct faculty at the University of California, San Francisco School of Pharmacy and University of the Pacific Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. Chan earned his Pharm.D. degree from Rutgers University Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy and his M.S. degree in public health from National University of Singapore. He completed a pharmacy practice residency (PGY1) at the University of California, San Francisco School of Pharmacy and an oncology specialty residency (PGY2) at the University of California, Davis Medical Center. Currently, he is dually board certified in pharmacotherapy and oncology pharmacy.

Chan moved to Singapore to begin his academic career in 2006, where he established a clinical pharmacy service with the lymphoma and sarcoma team at the National Cancer Center in Singapore. Through his clinical service, Chan has been providing direct patient care and drug optimization to patients with cancer, ensuring drug efficacy and safety. Today, Chan’s clinical service also provides experiential learning opportunities for pharmacy students and residents in Singapore and different parts of the world. As a strong advocate of clinical pharmacy education, Chan has cowritten several textbook chapters, including the lymphoma chapter in Pharmacotherapy: A Pathophysiologic Approach. He is also a program director for the National Oncology Pharmacy Residency Program in Singapore.

As a clinician-scientist, Chan is heavily involved in cancer research. He has great interest in cancer supportive care with an emphasis on understanding the biological mechanisms, clinical prediction, and management strategies of chemotherapy-induced and cancer-related toxicities in patients with cancer and survivors. He also has a strong interest in cancer pharmacoepidemiology, medication safety in oncology, and clinical pharmacy education. Chan has published more than 110 full-length peer-reviewed manuscripts in a wide array of cancer supportive care topics, including chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, myelosuppression, cognitive impairment, dermatological toxicities, and cancer-related fatigue. Chan supervises Ph.D. students and fellows, and his research program has attracted more than $1.7 million in funding support from numerous agencies and pharmaceutical companies at the national and international level. Chan was the recipient of the Young Scientist Award from National University of Singapore in 2013 and was elected as an American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) Fellow in 2014.

Chan has served as a leader in various regional, national, and international organizations. He has served on many committees and task forces with ACCP, as well as organized numerous conferences and workshops in Asia to advocate for ACCP. With the International Society of Oncology Pharmacy Practitioners (ISOPP), he has served as a chair for the education committee, as well as the scientific co-chair for the 2014 and 2016 biannual meetings. Chan is also an associate editor for the Journal of Oncology Pharmacy Practice, the official journal for ISOPP. He is currently serving his second term as a board member with the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC) while also chairing the neurotoxicity study group and membership committee. Chan has served on numerous guideline panels for MASCC, including two clinical management guidelines for dermatological toxicities associated with EGFR inhibitors and radiation dermatitis. Chan has also served in various capacities for other organizations, including the Asian Conference on Clinical Pharmacy and the Ministry of Health, Singapore.

Chan firmly believes that his mentors have influenced and inspired him greatly throughout his career. These individuals include Drs. Jacky Olin, Robert Ignoffo, Andrea Iannucci, Jeanne Reede, William Dager, William Kehoe, and Gary Yee. He is very grateful for their valuable guidance, both personally and professionally. He has also learned the meaning of mentorship from them, and he hopes to follow their footsteps to provide great mentorship to his trainees and students.

Chan encourages everyone to be adventurous and not fearful of changes and challenges. He could have taken a safe and conservative route to develop his career in the United States. Instead, he made a bold, yet conscious, decision to move to Singapore to develop his academic career. He saw great opportunities, and he was determined to expand the presence of clinical pharmacy in Asia. Today, Chan is a leader in pioneering clinical pharmacy practice, research, and education in Asia. He is grateful to have met many wonderful colleagues in Singapore and Asia who share his vision. Chan believes that his career successes to date would not have been possible without these colleagues. He urges everyone to cultivate a broader mindset, step out of his or her comfort zone, and embrace the challenges lying ahead.

Chan’s favorite quotation is, “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” He is a firm believer that we must be passionate and enthusiastic about what we do, and it is important that we continue to network and surround ourselves with like-minded individuals. Chan believes that ACCP has given him many wonderful opportunities. He strongly encourages everyone to stay active within ACCP and to find his or her niche within this excellent organization.

May 2015

Jonathan Bain, Pharm.D., BCPS, is a critical care pharmacy specialist at the Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. He began his college career at the University of Tennessee at Martin, where he received a B.S. degree in chemistry. Shadowing experiences during this time sparked his interest in critical care clinical pharmacy, leading him to apply to the University of Tennessee in Memphis, where he completed a Pharm.D. degree. He continued his clinical training by completing a PGY1 pharmacy practice residency at Moses H. Cone Hospital and subsequently a PGY2 critical care residency at the University of Kentucky. On completion of his second residency, he briefly remained on staff at the University of Kentucky as a cardiothoracic surgery/cardiovascular critical care pharmacist, where he was also involved in student and resident rotations, research projects, and therapeutic lectures at the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy.

In his current role, Bain’s patient care responsibilities include daily rounding on several intensive care units, including neurosurgery, medicine, cardiology, trauma, general surgery, and cardiothoracic surgery; sedation, delirium, and analgesia patient rounds; medication therapy management; management of critical bleeding; and medical emergency “code” and stroke responses. Bain is also involved administratively in the implementation of formulary management strategies through current protocol analysis or development and analysis of non-formulary requests. He provides pharmacotherapy education to the medical and surgical residents and is involved in several research projects with plans for publishing the results. Bain’s plans for the future include providing advanced practice experiences for students and residency rotations. He has an interest in anticoagulation and bleeding disorders that originated from his work at Moses Cone Hospital and the University of Kentucky. He cowrote a recent paper in the Journal of Thrombosis and Thrombolysis on the off-label use of recombinant activated factor VII for patients with critical bleeding.

Bain credits his early shadowing experience with showing him what a clinical pharmacist does in areas from nutritional support to critical care. As an undergraduate, he saw how critical care pharmacists had a high impact in the care of critically ill patients. Bain’s access to great mentors and his ability to complete his education at several institutions across the United States have enabled him to observe and incorporate different styles of practice and teaching into his current practice. Bain is inspired to become a better pharmacist and researcher, never to settle for the status quo, and to strive to be the same type of mentor to others as he experienced early in his career.

Bain joined ACCP as a student pharmacist. His mentors—G. Christopher Wood, Pharm.D., FCCP, BCPS-AQ ID; Bradley Boucher, Pharm.D., FCCP, FCCM; and P. David Rogers, Pharm.D., Ph.D.—were actively involved in the organization and influenced his decision to join ACCP. As a student, his work on the project “CAS5 is required for fluconazole tolerance in Candida albicans,” with Dr. Rogers received an ACCP Best Poster Award. He believes that ACCP has provided a venue for meeting clinical practitioners from across the United States and throughout the world, as well as a great way to stay in touch with colleagues. ACCP has been essential to his growth as a practitioner through participation in its meetings, committee work, and publications. Bain has been an active member of the Critical Care PRN and has served on the PRN’s program and communications committees. He has also served on ACCP’s Organizational Affairs Committee and looks forward to becoming more involved in the College.

Bain’s advice to others is to surround yourselves with great practitioners and people. He credits his success to being fortunate to have been surrounded by many hard-working, selfless people who always push themselves to be great. He finds this attitude contagious, and it serves as one of the driving forces that influence his teaching, research, and clinical activities.

March 2015

Dr. Drayton Hammond is a clinical assistant professor of pharmacy practice at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Pharmacy in Little Rock, Arkansas. He practices as a clinical pharmacy specialist in the medical intensive care unit (MICU) at the UAMS Medical Center. He attended the South Carolina College of Pharmacy at the Medical University of South Carolina campus and The Citadel Military College Graduate School of Business, where he received his Pharm.D. and MBA degrees. After graduation, he completed a PGY1 pharmacy residency with Georgia Regents Medical Center and the University of Georgia College of Pharmacy and a PGY2 critical care pharmacy residency with University of Florida Health Jacksonville and the University of Florida College of Pharmacy. Currently, he is enrolled in classes to complete an M.S. degree at UAMS. He is a board-certified pharmacotherapy specialist and plans to sit for the critical care certification exam later this year.

In his current position, Hammond teaches the required didactic curriculum for the College of Pharmacy and Physician Assistant programs at UAMS. In addition, he facilitates a problem-based learning elective in critical care and coordinates an elective for preparing students to pursue postgraduate training. Through his role as an MICU clinical pharmacy specialist, he provides patient care as a member of a rounding interdisciplinary team and participates in a monthly lecture series for the medical residents. He precepts pharmacy students and residents and serves as a mentor for the statewide UAMS Teaching Certificate Program. He is actively involved in investigator-initiated educational and clinical research studies as a team member alongside other practitioners and learners in pharmacy and medicine at UAMS and other institutions.

Hammond credits his success up to this point in both his personal and his professional life to God above all else. God’s plan has been infinitely better than anything he might have envisioned. Hammond is eternally thankful to his family and friends and will never be able to repay the kindness and support shown to him by Joseph DiPiro and his PGY1 Residency Program Director Marjorie Shaw Phillips. He is indebted to them for their gratitude and belief in him.

Hammond believes he found his ideal position as a faculty member and clinical pharmacy specialist. Ever since he was young, he has always had a desire to help and serve others. After discussing the profession with a cousin who is a pharmacist, he knew that he had found a perfect fit. He feels blessed to help educate future pharmacists and provide care for critically ill patients. Hammond offers this advice:

People will not care how much you know until they know how much you care. In interactions with patients, practitioners and learners, a compassionate and sincere effort to help is one of the most impactful and memorable actions a person can offer to another. Find your passions in your personal and professional lives and chase after them with a fervor that will make others turn their heads and take notice. To quote Leo Babauta, “Instead of focusing on how much you can accomplish, focus on how much you can absolutely love what you’re doing.”

January 2015

Dr. Michael Gillette is a clinical pharmacy specialist in cardiology at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston, Texas. Many people and moments in his life have influenced his career in numerous ways, but his brother first introduced the profession of pharmacy to him, and his undergraduate chemistry professors were also instrumental in supporting and preparing him for pharmacy school. He attended Nova Southeastern University College of Pharmacy, where many faculty and preceptors helped him grow professionally and encouraged him to consider pursuing residency training. After graduation, he first gained valuable experience working as a clinical/staff pharmacist for 2 years in the VA setting before completing an accredited PGY1 pharmacy practice residency with an emphasis in acute care and a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship in cardiology at the North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System. He is a recent graduate of the ACCP Research and Scholarship Academy and is board certified in both pharmacotherapy and ambulatory care pharmacy.

In his current role, his patient care responsibilities include rounding as a member of the interdisciplinary team in the cardiac care unit and on the inpatient cardiology consult team. He also manages a pharmacist-run heart failure clinic once a week and precepts pharmacy students and residents. Gillette’s interests lie in providing optimal patient care as well as conducting research related to the use of pharmacotherapy for treating various cardiovascular diseases. His administrative responsibilities include being a member of the hospital’s critical care committee and assisting with the development and implementation of protocols related to cardiovascular pharmacotherapy. In addition, he participates in investigator-initiated research projects and collaborates with other providers in clinical trials.

Gillette enjoys the daily challenges of being a clinical pharmacy practitioner, and he chose this as a career path because it gave him the ability to directly and positively influence patient care. Some sage advice he would offer to future clinical pharmacists is to always take advantage of every opportunity and experience to grow and evolve. He notes that while in school, he never thought he would eventually be practicing in cardiology, and although concepts didn’t make sense in school, he was fortunate to have the opportunity after graduating to practice under clinical pharmacists and physicians who were able to fill in the missing gaps in an area that was so perplexing at first but then just fell into place. He commented, “Sometimes, you learn from the positive experiences and sometimes the negative, but the great thing is that you learn. Take the opportunity to look back on your mistakes and self-reflect so that you don’t repeat them.” One thing that has helped him significantly is his experience in networking with others to seek advice, ideas, and even encouragement when necessary. “A good mentor,” he recounts, “is certainly worth his/her weight in gold. Work hard in all that you do; nothing good ever came to those who didn’t put forth the effort or ever try.” Finally, he advises hopeful clinical pharmacists to find an area within pharmacy that is enjoyable because, as he says, “you’ll be doing it for a long time and you’ll be successful at doing things that you enjoy. Most of all, great things happen as a generous response to prayer.”

Gillette also credits a few others as helpful influences: the numerous patients he has encountered, who have given him necessary experience and both positive and negative feedback; his family and friends, who have been a longitudinal cord of support; and lastly, God, who has graciously coordinated everything that has led him to where he is today.

November 2014

Mr. Tyler Vest is currently a third-year pharmacy student at the University of Cincinnati (UC) James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy who is expected to graduate in May 2016. Before matriculating into the Pharm.D. program at UC, he completed undergraduate coursework at the University of Kentucky (UK). During his time at UK, he developed a passion for clinical pharmacy and research. Vest engaged in research in a pharmaceutical sciences laboratory at the UK College of Pharmacy that seeks to personalize lung cancer therapy by looking at the genomic content of lung cancer DNA. The laboratory’s principal investigator, Dr. E. Penni Black, strengthened Vest’s interest in clinical pharmacy and research and began to help him hone the skills that would be necessary for further education and training.

Vest works as an inpatient pharmacy intern at the Cleveland Clinic. As part of his internship, he completed two 12-week components focused on clinical pharmacy and operations during the summer months after his first and second year. Through this opportunity, he has learned the importance of clinical pharmacy; moreover, he has been exposed to day-to-day pharmacy operations. This experience has allowed him to participate in two clinical research projects: re-dispensing from the institution’s pediatric pharmacy satellite and reviewing initial antimicrobial doses in patients on CVVHD (continuous veno-venous hemodialysis).

Vest’s exposure to clinical pharmacy ultimately led him to apply to pharmacy school to pursue clinical pharmacy further. One day, he hopes to be a clinical pharmacist in an inpatient setting. Through his research projects, and listening to clinical pharmacists talk about their careers at UK, he became intrigued by clinical pharmacy and began to understood the importance of pharmacist involvement in patient care as experts in drug therapy. He wants to be involved in direct patient care and to be doing what is necessary to care for his patients. Although he is currently considering all the many paths available within clinical pharmacy, he is most interested in pursuing oncology.

Vest joined ACCP during his first pharmacy year and shortly thereafter served as an ACCP College of Pharmacy Student Liaison. With the help of his classmates, he also established the local ACCP Student Chapter at UC. He is actively involved with the state’s ACCP affiliate, the Ohio College of Clinical Pharmacy. He currently serves on the ACCP National Student Network Advisory Committee as vice chair and will assume the role of chair next year. This experience has been an incredible opportunity for him. He is very enthusiastic about helping to shape and contribute to the career paths of students aspiring to be clinical pharmacists during their earliest stage of career development. Having attended the past two ACCP Annual Meetings, Vest thoroughly enjoyed all the programming therein. ACCP has opened doors for him that he never thought were there.

One of Vest’s life goals is to complete postgraduate training. He hopes to complete a PGY1 and then perhaps pursue a PGY2 in oncology. His initial oncology exposure was during his time at UK, and his experiences since then have strengthened his interest in oncology. By completing this short-term goal, Vest hopes to make progress toward his long-term goal of being involved in direct patient care and managing his patients’ medication therapy.

September 2014

Amy Barton Pai, Pharm.D., FCCP, FASN, BCPS, is an associate professor of pharmacy practice at Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (ACPHS). She earned her B.S. degree in pharmacy from Albany College of Pharmacy in 1996. She then completed a pharmacy practice residency at St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany, New York, and received her Pharm.D. degree at Albany College of Pharmacy in 1999. From 1999 to 2001, she was a nephrology research fellow at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Then, from 2001 to 2008, Dr. Barton Pai was an associate professor at the University of New Mexico College of Pharmacy and School of Medicine.

Dr. Barton Pai is director of the ANephRx Core Laboratory. Her clinical and translational research program focuses on oxidative stress and inflammation in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Her laboratory conducts in vivo and in vitro investigations of the effects intravenous iron compounds, vitamin D, and other pharmaceuticals on cytokine activation, reactive oxygen species formation, and lipid peroxidation to better understand the potential effects of the agents on inflammation and cardiovascular disease in patients with kidney disease. Her other research interests include pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism in CKD, effects of iron on gram-positive organism growth and infection, and outcomes related to clinical pharmacy interventions in patients with CKD. Dr. Barton Pai has received grant support from the PhRMA (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America) Foundation and the Dialysis Clinic, Inc.; investigator-initiated contracts from the pharmaceutical industry; and federal funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Dr. Barton Pai’s practice for the past 15 years has been in the ambulatory hemodialysis setting. In 2002, she initiated the Clinical Pharmacy Research Training Program to provide longitudinal training for aspiring clinical pharmacy scientists. She actively mentors residents, fellows, and pharmacy students in a nephrology-focused elective rotation and an APPE (advanced pharmacy practice experience). She serves as a co-adviser for the Student College of Clinical Pharmacy Chapter (SCCP), which was recognized as the student organization of the year at ACPHS in 2014. SCCP at ACPHS provides cardiovascular and kidney screenings in the Capital Region of upstate New York in partnership with the Northeast Kidney Foundation.

Dr. Barton Pai first became interested in research during the fourth year of her B.S. degree program in pharmacy. The dean offered to send students to Cornell Medical College in New York City to work in the pharmacology laboratory. During that time, she spent 6 weeks working with various laboratory techniques in both in vitro and animal models. On the last day of the experience, she went on rounds with a clinical pharmacologist who used his research experience in hepatic enzyme activity to modulate a patient’s chemotherapy regimen. After that, she knew she wanted to be a clinical and translational scientist. She chose the subspecialty of nephrology because of the “complexity of the biochemical milieu in patients with chronic kidney disease and how that may affect response to drug therapy.”

Dr. Barton Pai is a Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist and a Fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy and the American Society of Nephrology. She serves on several national committees, including the American Society of Nephrology Dialysis Advisory Group and the NIH National Kidney Disease Education Program (NKDEP) Coordinating Committee, and she serves as chair of the Pharmacy Work Group for NKDEP. She is serving on the Programming Committee for the National Kidney Foundation for 2015. Dr. Barton Pai finds her work with these professional organizations rewarding and has experienced many benefits through her ACCP membership. ACCP and the Nephrology PRN have been instrumental in providing grant funding, mentorship, and networking opportunities for her career. She also states, “The intimacy of ACCP meetings compared to other pharmacy meetings and the growth of student programming has made the student ACCP experience invaluable. As an adviser, I always recommend that students attend ACCP first if they are planning on pursuing post-doctoral experiences.”

Although Dr. Barton Pai remains very busy with professional organizations, research, and the mentoring of aspiring pharmacists and researchers, she also has many interests outside her career. One especially interesting example is Dr. Barton Pai’s passion for ballet. She takes six to eight classes per week and tries to attend as many New York City Ballet performances as possible.

July 2014

Dr. Richard Parrish is a clinical practice leader for surgery and pediatric pharmacy with Alberta Health Services (AHS) in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and practices at Royal Alexandra Hospital. Dr. Parrish completed his B.S. degree in pharmacy general practice at The Ohio State University in 1980, his M.S. degree at Auburn University in 1985, and his Ph.D. degree in social, administrative, and clinical pharmacy at the University of Minnesota in 2000. His dissertation on early 20th-century interprofessional negotiation of drug standards was published as a book, the first in the program’s 40-year history. He is a Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist (BCPS). As the former chief pharmacist at five U.S. hospitals of various bed sizes and scope, Dr. Parrish has led the implementation of significant medication safety improvements in CPOE (computerized physician order entry) systems in both adult and pediatric health systems.

In his current practice, Dr. Parrish serves as a provincial pharmacy representative to AHS’s Surgery Strategic Clinical Network (SCN) Core Committee and as an ERAS (Enhanced Recovery After Surgery) Steering Committee member for the Diabetes, Obesity, and Nutrition SCN. He is also a member of the AHS Pediatric Advisory Committee.

Dr. Parrish was elected as an ACCP Fellow in 2013. Since election to ACCP membership in 2001, he has served on numerous task forces and committees, both as member and chair. Moreover, he has been a member of ACCP’s Research Institute’s Practice-Based Research Network Community Advisory Panel since 2012. From 2010 to 2012, Dr. Parrish served the Pediatrics PRN as chair of the Collaboration Committee, which published a joint opinion with the Pediatric Pharmacy Advocacy Group (PPAG) in both Pharmacotherapy and the Journal of Pediatric Pharmacology and Therapeutics on a pediatric patient’s need for a clinical pharmacist. He was the founding president for DC-CCP (District of Columbia College of Clinical Pharmacy), an ACCP chapter. In addition to his service to ACCP, he is an active member of PPAG and SIDP (Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists) and was recently invited as a participant in the Alberta College of Pharmacists Inaugural Leadership Forum.

Dr. Parrish values ACCP because of the educational resources and networking opportunities it has provided to him through the years. The College leadership inspired him to contribute his time, talent, and treasure. He would like to offer his gratitude to the College leadership, most notably Mary Beth O’Connell, Gary Matzke, Dawn Havrda, Milap Nahata, Don McLeod, and the late Darwin Zaske, for “their penetrating vision, timely mentoring, and sparkling collegiality along my wayfare.”

Advice Dr. Parrish offers to the College is to “define, or be defined!” In addition, he recommends three professional precepts: being goal directed, building new relationships, and maintaining and expanding old relationships. He enacts these precepts each day by setting the following goals: learn and use the names of three new people, and express appreciation and affection to three friends. These goals have guided his practice for more than 35 years. You may be surprised to learn that, partly to honor the birth of his three sons and his professional upbringing in Roman Catholic health systems, Dr. Parrish chose to be a Catholic and is a trained liturgical cantor who ministered to parishes in State College, Pennsylvania, and Wayzata, Minnesota, for almost 10 years in the 1990s.

March 2014

Emily Benefield, Pharm.D., BCPS, an alumna of Washington State University, is the PGY1 residency site coordinator and advanced clinical pharmacist in the pediatric/cardiac intensive care units (PICUs/CICUs) at Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. Dr. Benefield was introduced to clinical pharmacy while shadowing at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital (YVMH) during her senior year of high school. This was the first of her many interactions with Dr. Dennis Hoover, the director of pharmacy, and Dr. Carol Vanevenhoven, a junior clinical pharmacist. At YVMH, Drs. Hoover and Vanevenhoven taught her that the practice of clinical pharmacy uses high-level math and science skills in the provision of patient care. Two years after that initial meeting, Dr. Benefield was hired as an intern at YVMH, thus beginning her path to becoming a clinical pharmacist. Over this period, Dr. Benefield was taught the basics of pharmacy, which grew into clinical abilities, thanks to the clinical pharmacy mentors at YVMH and her exposure to the residency program there. Moreover, although Dr. Benefield knew her career path would lead her to postgraduate training before becoming a clinical pharmacist, she had no idea this path would eventually lead her to pediatrics.

Dr. Benefield was drawn to pediatrics because of her lack of confidence and knowledge in the specialty. Hence, to better herself, she sought out every advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) in pediatrics available so that she could learn more about pediatric disease states and their relationship to pharmacotherapy. Because of the paucity of data for most pediatric drug treatments, the pediatric clinical pharmacist as the drug therapy expert is an integral member of the interdisciplinary health care team.

After graduating with a Pharm.D. degree from the University of Oklahoma College of Pharmacy, Dr. Benefield began her PGY1 training at the under the direction of Winter Smith, Pharm.D., BCPS. During her first year there, Dr. Benefield found her love and passion for pediatric pharmacotherapy. This led her to further pursue a PGY2 pediatric pharmacy residency with Tracy Hagemann, Pharm.D., FCCP, FPPAG, also at the University of Oklahoma.

After completing her residency, Dr. Benefield began her career as a clinical pharmacist at Intermountain Healthcare - Primary Children’s Hospital, a 289-bed freestanding pediatric referral center for Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Nevada. Serving such a large geographic area, Primary Children’s Hospital has a high-acuity patient population, adding to the excitement of working in the pediatric referral center. Dr. Benefield participates in daily multidisciplinary rounds with faculty and residents in the University of Utah Department of Pediatrics, attends all respiratory and cardiac resuscitations, contributes to trauma stabilizations, and provides support for ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) cannulations on the PICU and CICU teams. She works with an accomplished team of pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, respiratory therapists, dietitians, and critical care technicians to provide the best possible care to the children of the Intermountain West.

Dr. Benefield became the residency site coordinator for the PGY1 pharmacy residency at Primary Children’s Hospital about 2 years ago. Primary Children’s has 3 of the 10 PGY1 pharmacy residents within the four sites of the Intermountain Healthcare residency program, all of whom have opportunities to participate in elective learning experiences at the pediatric facility. She also serves as a preceptor for the PICU learning experience offered to APPE students and PGY1 and PGY2 residents in the Salt Lake City area. Dr. Benefield finds daily fulfillment in the challenges of training the up-and-coming minds of pediatric clinical pharmacy.

One of most important mentors in Dr. Benefield’s career is Dr. Tracy Hagemann, former PGY2 pediatric residency director at the University of Oklahoma College of Pharmacy. Dr. Hagemann is not only a great professional example, but she also truly focuses on Dr. Benefield’s overall development. Dr. Benefield is very grateful for Dr. Hagemann’s understanding of the importance of having balance in life. Indeed, only with this guidance was Dr. Benefield able to make some professional sacrifices to move to Utah for the love of family and the outdoor things she loves, such as running, hiking, and snowboarding. Dr. Benefield has no regrets about the decision, as she has been able to mold her position to include leadership, clinical, and research opportunities while serving as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Utah College of Pharmacy. With the support of the pediatric pharmacy faculty at the University of Oklahoma, Dr. Benefield has been able to go much farther than she ever imagined in her early years as a practitioner. Although it isn’t easy to find a work-life balance, Dr. Benefield recommends that young practitioners take the time to find the right personal balance for themselves.

March 2014

Dr. Nicole Olson is a clinical pharmacy specialist – patient aligned care team (PACT) at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in Tomah, Wisconsin. She earned her Pharm.D. degree from the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy. In 2011, she completed a PGY1 Pharmacy Residency at the VAMC in West Palm Beach, Florida. She is a Board Certified Ambulatory Care Pharmacist who focuses on primary care.

Dr. Olson primarily works in a primary care clinic treating veterans with diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, heart failure, tobacco cessation, asthma, and COPD. She also works ½ day each week in the anticoagulation clinic. In between seeing patients, Dr. Olson reviews nonformulary requests and answers many drug-related information questions for providers and other health care workers with whom she works closely. In addition, she is the provider for two shared medical appointments—one for diabetes and the other for heart failure.

When Dr. Olson began pharmacy school, she did not anticipate pursuing a clinical pharmacy career. Her clinical interests grew each year of school until she experienced her fourth-year rotations, when she realized she wanted to pursue a residency so that she might train to become a clinical pharmacist. Through her fourth-year rotations, she discovered her pharmacy niche in ambulatory care while on rotation at a cardiology clinic at the West Palm Beach VAMC. She is passionate about ambulatory care because she enjoys seeing patients, establishing the provider/patient relationship, and adjusting patients’ medications. Dr. Olson considers helping patients to medically improve the most rewarding aspect of her pharmacy career. She also enjoys being the primary medication resource for provider questions. She enjoys the challenges a career in clinical pharmacy brings, noting that it forces her “to stay on her toes” and keep up with the latest research and practice guidelines. For these reasons, she pursued an ambulatory care clinical pharmacy position at the VAMC in Tomah, Wisconsin, after her residency.

Although Dr. Olson gives credit to all of the preceptors from her residency for influencing her career and shaping her to be the clinical pharmacist she is today, one preceptor in particular had the biggest impact on her career: Dr. David Parra. Not only was Dr. Parra one of her residency preceptors, but he was also the preceptor for the rotation she had as a student that made her choose to pursue ambulatory care pharmacy. He pushed Dr. Olson and challenged her to be the best pharmacist that she could be. She feels that Dr. Parra went out of his way to help her succeed. He taught her how to be a good clinical pharmacist, the importance of work-life balance, and how to make work challenging, rewarding, and fun. Although she is now hundreds of miles away, Dr. Parra continues to help her and provide guidance when needed. Dr. Olson considers Dr. Parra an exceptional preceptor, mentor, and teacher.

Because preceptors have had such an impact on Dr. Olson’s career, she intends to be a preceptor for students and residents. Having had great mentors and preceptors as a student and resident, she knows the value of training the future of clinical pharmacy. She intends to make the aspiring pharmacists better pharmacists, just as her preceptors did for her.

January 2014

Dr. Amber Castle started her career as a pharmacy technician at a Stop & Shop pharmacy when she was 16 years old. For the first time, she understood that pharmacists did much more than manage the inventory. She admired their compassion and the strong personal relationships they built with their clients. It was then that she decided to pursue pharmacy as a career. After starting college at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, Rhode Island, Castle learned that pharmacists had many roles outside retail pharmacies. She spent a summer volunteering at Yale-New Haven Hospital (YNHH) in New Haven, Connecticut. During that time, she had the opportunity to shadow Bryan Polsonetti, a clinical pharmacist, in the surgical ICU. She saw patients, discussed their care as an equal member of the medical team, and was able to make real-time interventions before a prescription was ever written. That was when she knew she wanted to be a pharmacist specializing in the care of the critically ill. In 2007, Castle graduated magna cum laude with a Pharm.D. degree and a certificate in French and pharmacy. She worked as a pharmacy intern at YNHH most weekends throughout college and went on to complete a PGY1 pharmacy practice residency. She finished her training at just the right time and was able to immediately transition into her current position as the neuroscience ICU (NeuroICU) pharmacist.

As the NeuroICU clinical specialist, Castle is responsible for epilepsy, neurology, and neurosurgery services. She has found the neuroscience pharmacy community welcoming, vibrant, and dynamic. She believes neuroscience really stands out as a field in which pharmacists are exceptionally well represented at the highest levels of leadership. Gretchen Brophy, Theresa Murphy-Human, and Denise Rhoney are mentors and role models who have inspired Castle to get involved with collaborative, multicenter research and interdisciplinary education. It is truly an exciting time to practice in neuroscience. Today, Castle wears many hats in addition to her primary role. As the lead ICU pharmacist, she helps coordinate policy and other initiatives across the ICUs. As a part-time lecturer in the Yale School of Nursing nurse practitioner program, she coordinates two pharmacology courses. As the director of the PGY2 critical care pharmacy residency program, she is responsible for the recruitment and training of two residents.

Castle is also proud to be a member of the Connecticut 1 (CT-1) disaster medical assistance team. The CT-1 team was deployed to New York during Hurricane Sandy in 2012; however, she was sent to join the Tennessee 1 (TN-1) team in New Jersey, which needed an additional pharmacist. These teams were among the first of many in the United States to respond to the disaster. Castle found it a challenge not knowing where she would be located or exactly what to expect,…and it was a little scary driving through a hurricane! However, thanks to the amazing TN-1 team led by Team Commander Teddy Rogers, the team was able to quickly set up a functional base of operations and start seeing patients immediately after the storm. The pharmacy team, Roberta Keeton, Stephen Wickizer, and Patricia Wilcox, led by the multitalented Glenn Susskind, successfully operated a pharmacy out of a tent on the Rutgers campus and then out of the back of a truck at a convention center in Atlantic City, New Jersey, for 2 weeks. While there, the team assisted with therapeutic interchange, drug information, drug selection and dosing, and inventory management. YNHH and the pharmacy department management team fully supported this humanitarian mission.

Castle is grateful for the many opportunities she has had over the years. She feels privileged to be part of an amazing department of talented, dedicated, and incredibly intelligent pharmacists at YNHH. One of the best parts of her job is the opportunity to work with students and residents. Their energy and enthusiasm is contagious and pushes her to do more and learn more. She is thankful for her mentors, especially Jim Sarigianis, Eric Tichy, Marina Yazdi, and Lori Lee, for all of their encouragement and support.

November 2013

Ms. Cedona Watts is currently a fourth-year student pharmacist at the University of Southern California (USC) School of Pharmacy and is expected to graduate in May 2014. She recently completed her first advanced pharmacy practice experience in ambulatory care, during which she gained experience managing patients with cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and HIV. She is also an intern pharmacist at City of Hope, a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated comprehensive cancer center. Last summer, Watts completed a 10-week research internship at the NCI, part of the National Institutes of Health, where she assisted in developing an assay to detect endocrine-disrupting chemicals in water sources. At USC, Watts was the recipient of two research scholarships to study the use of CXCR1/2 antagonists in the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer. Before joining USC, Watts earned a B.S. degree in biological sciences with a minor in chemistry and a B.A. degree in philosophy from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Watts applied to pharmacy school to become a clinical pharmacist, and her goal is to become a faculty member. She was intrigued by clinical pharmacy after shadowing a clinical pharmacist. This experience provided her the opportunity to learn about the role of clinical pharmacists in recommending appropriate drug therapy and precepting students and residents as part of a multidisciplinary health care team. Although she is aware of the many areas of pharmacy practice, she is particularly interested in learning more about oncology. Watts’ career choices were influenced the most by the faculty at USC and the pharmacists at City of Hope—experts in their respective fields and leaders in the pharmacy profession. Her experience in research helped her understand the basic science behind therapeutics, and her experience in cardiology led her to realize the importance of looking at the patient as a whole before making clinical decisions.

Watts joined ACCP during her second year of pharmacy school and attended “Emerge from the Crowd: How to Become a Standout Residency Candidate” at the ACCP spring meeting in Reno, Nevada. Her favorite part of the conference was the workshop in which she learned the importance of scholarly activities and the ways in which students can get involved during pharmacy school. She also participated in the online CV review service, from which she learned great tips for improving her CV. This year, Watts is excited to serve on the ACCP National Student Network Advisory Committee as a member-at-large.

Despite her busy schedule, Watts finds time for community service. She participates in organizing health fairs for the underserved patient population, where students not only screen for blood pressure, provide immunizations, and counsel patients, but also develop an appreciation for cultural competency. Watts is currently assisting in organizing a student conference for undergraduate, graduate, and professional students to promote diversity in higher education.

Finally, people would be surprised to know that Cedona Watts wanted to be a foreign correspondent before starting college!

September 2013

Dr. Jeremy Moretz is currently a PGY2 cardiology pharmacy resident at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. In May 2008, Dr. Moretz received his undergraduate degree in religious studies: history and thought at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, North Carolina, and in May 2012, received his Pharm.D. degree from the University of North Carolina (UNC) Eshelman School of Pharmacy. After completing his PGY1 pharmacy practice residency at Vanderbilt, he was selected to stay on as the university’s first PGY2 resident in cardiology, his current course of study. Dr. Moretz’s future career interests include pursuing a cardiovascular practice, obtaining an academic appointment at a college of pharmacy, and conducting research in heart failure. Throughout his pharmacy studies and residency training, he has maintained an active role in ACCP, serving as member-at-large in both the National Student Network and National Resident Advisory committees.

His interest in cardiology primarily stems from two highly influential life events. First, many years before considering a career in pharmacy, he watched as his grandfather suffered from heart failure, witnessing firsthand his grandfather’s day-to-day struggles with the burdens of his disease and the complexity of his medication regimen. After deciding to enter the profession, Dr. Moretz believed that it would be enriching to work with the cardiology patient population, both in educating them about their condition and in assisting them with optimizing their therapeutic regimen.

The second life event driving Dr. Moretz’s interest in cardiology originated in his own health problems. Having struggled with his weight for many years, he was given a diagnosis of hypertension at age 16 and placed on an aggressive antihypertensive regimen. When he was only 21 years old, he weighed 290 pounds. During his senior year of undergraduate study, he made a conscious decision to implement a complete lifestyle change. Over the next 6 years, he achieved a 115-pound weight loss and was eventually able to discontinue his antihypertensive therapy. He notes that it is incredibly rewarding to counsel patients who struggle with lifestyle modifications and to share with them his personal struggle, believing that, in so doing, he is able to give them a new perspective on weight loss. Implementation of weight loss is not (only) a factor in reality television shows but, with hard work and dedication, can also be accomplished by one’s own conscious choices and changes in lifestyle.

For Dr. Moretz, the greatest influence on his life is the exceptional mentorship he has been afforded during his studies at UNC and his pursuit of residency training at Vanderbilt. Time and again, he has been pushed to excel by his mentors. Moreover, countless preceptors and professors have shown him what it means to become a practicing pharmacy professional. Their demonstration of integrity and professional excellence, together with their commitment to the profession, lifelong academic pursuit, collegial relationship building, professional networking, and ability to maintain a healthy work-life balance, has been life-changing. According to Dr. Moretz, who has found the wisdom and guidance of his mentors, preceptors, and professors deeply influential, it is wise to learn from those who have walked a similar path before you. His appreciation to all who have served as mentors to him and as otherwise exemplars of scholarship at UNC and Vanderbilt is heartfelt.

Of note, Dr. Moretz is also an avid musician (both piano and guitar) who will be presiding over his oldest and best friend’s wedding as an ordained minister.

May 2013

Dr. Juliana Chan is a clinical associate professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) College of Pharmacy and in the College of Medicine in the sections of Digestive Diseases, Nutrition, and Hepatology. She earned her B.S. degree in pharmacy and her Pharm.D. degree from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy (MCP). She completed a Pharmacy Practice Residency (PGY1) and a Specialized Residency in Gastroenterology and Hepatology (PGY2) at the University of Michigan. She is a Board Certified Ambulatory Care Pharmacist who teaches and conducts research in gastroenterology and hepatology with a focus on viral hepatitis.

During the past decade, Dr. Chan had many opportunities to serve in several clinical capacities. In 2002, she established the first hepatitis C pharmacist-managed clinic at the University of Illinois Medical Center (UIMC) Outpatient Care Center, which was subsequently dedicated as the Bobbie and Marvin Fink Liver Clinic. She was the primary care provider for patients with hepatitis C when referred by the hepatologist to initiate hepatitis C therapy. Dr. Chan was responsible for all patient assessment and education, as well as for ordering and monitoring pertinent laboratory tests, providing therapy and dosage adjustments, and managing adverse drug effects associated with hepatitis C medications. The pharmaceutical care she provided allowed her to focus her efforts on maximizing the benefits of liver drug therapy, reducing complications and adverse effects, improving patient outcomes, and decreasing overall health care costs.

In 2007, Dr. Chan was named the assistant director of clinical pharmacy in ambulatory care at UIMC. Her clinical skills and expertise in creating the hepatitis C service revolutionized specialty pharmacy services at UIMC. Under her direction, rheumatology, neurology, and gastroenterology specialty pharmacy services were created, which mirrored and modeled the hepatology service she had established. In addition, during her tenure as assistant director, she focused her research efforts on pharmacy administration, including the management of Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS), quality improvement, and medication safety.

Because of Dr. Chan’s success in creating the pharmacist-managed hepatitis C clinic in early 2000, she was selected to spearhead the development of a novel telemedicine clinic at UIC. Established in 2010, the hepatitis C telemedicine program provides direct patient care to about 300 inmates with viral hepatitis within the Illinois Department of Corrections by video conferencing; Dr. Chan is currently the clinical pharmacist who oversees this program.

Dr. Chan has given many invited national and international presentations on gastrointestinal and liver topics, published her research in peer-reviewed professional and scientific journals, and written several book chapters. She has also presented many papers on pharmacy administration with a focus on REMS, specialty pharmacy services, and quality improvement initiatives involving the Joint Commission requirements; these presentations have occurred at the University HealthSystem Consortium, American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and ACCP.

Through the years, Dr. Chan’s career has been enriched with several challenges and successes. She states that two individuals were of great influence to her, responsible for getting her to where she is today. The first is Professor Marion Hoar, her pharmaceutics professor at MCP, who taught her that perseverance is the key to success. Dr. Chan fondly recalls days in the pharmaceutics lab, making suppositories during intensely hot summer months. She felt punished and wondered “why me?” of all students chosen to make suppositories, a “not-so-nice” dosage form to be compounded in 90-degree weather. Although Dr. Chan pled with Professor Hoar to assign another item to compound, she was unsuccessful. Professor Hoar kept telling her “to keep trying and do not give up so easily.” He always pushed students to their limits and never gave them an easy answer; instead, he encouraged and nurtured self-thinking, pushing his students out of their comfort zone. It certainly was a journey, going through the pharmaceutics course. Professor Hoar, however, taught her that determination and “giving it your all” would make everything worthwhile. Professor Hoar’s constant guidance afforded her many “aha” moments…including a successful outcome when congealing a suppository, even in the warm weather.

The other individual who molded Dr. Chan into who she is today is Dr. Rosemary R. Berardi, professor emeritus of pharmacy at the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy. During Dr. Chan’s PGY1 residency program in 1998, she was introduced to Dr. Berardi, who identified herself as the GI/liver clinical pharmacist who was encouraging/soliciting residents to be on her clinical service. Dr. Chan states that the first words of Dr. Berardi were, “If you want to learn and teach, then select my rotation,” and that afterward, the professor left her curriculum vitae (CV) on the table and exited the room. Dr. Chan was petrified as she thought, Who would be “crazy enough” to be a clinical pharmacist specializing in constipation and diarrhea? However, at the same time, she was intrigued as she perused Dr. Berardi’s unique CV and, without hesitation, selected her GI/liver rotation. Because this occurred during the first 2 months in the PGY1, Dr. Chan quickly realized that GI was more than bowel excretion. Dr. Berardi modeled the persona of an excellent clinician who treated every patient as though he or she were her own “mom or dad” and encouraged Dr. Chan to “always think outside the box!!!” Dr. Berardi’s mentorship solidified Dr. Chan’s desire to pursue a PGY2 residency in GI/liver under her guidance. Dr. Chan has no regrets about the day she was selected to develop her knowledge and skills under Dr. Berardi’s tutelage. She truly believes that many of her academic accomplishments were achieved through Dr. Berardi’s guidance, mentorship, and, most importantly, friendship, through the years. Dr. Chan readily credits Dr. Berardi with her contributions to pharmacy and for being the thought leader in the gastroenterology and hepatology pharmacy world; without her being the “mother” and “creator” of this unique and specialized area, many of us would not be where we are today.

Dr. Berardi introduced Dr. Chan to ACCP and the importance of committee work. Dr. Chan maintains that without Dr. Berardi, there would be no GI/Liver/Nutrition PRN today. Dr. Berardi established the ACCP GLN PRN and invited Dr. Chan to be one of the founding members in 1999. Since then, Dr. Chan has been actively involved in national organizations, devoting most of her time and energy to ACCP. Among her contributions to ACCP are serving as a reviewer for annual and spring meeting abstracts for ACCP, for Pharmacotherapy, and for the Pharmacotherapy Preparatory Review Course on Gastroenterology Disorders. For the Clinical Administration PRN, she has served as a co-chair on the Programming Committee and has established the Scholarship Committee. She was also selected to be the GLN PRN secretary/treasurer for 2012–2013. In addition, she has been invited to write the Viral Hepatitis section for the ACCP Pharmacotherapy Self-Assessment Program in the ACCP Ambulatory Care New Practitioner Survival Guide/Resource Manual and will be an item writer for the GI/liver content in the ACCP National Student Competition. Dr. Chan follows Dr. Berardi’s example and is giving back to students, residents, and junior faculty by participating as an ACCP CV reviewer, National Resident Advisory Committee mentor, and Teaching and Learning Academy mentor. She encourages all trainees to join ACCP early in their career, telling them that this organization will help them grow professionally.

Dr. Chan gives credit to ACCP and states, “Being a member has allowed me many opportunities never thought of more than a decade ago.” Dr. Chan believes her success in the practice of pharmacy is directly because of those who taught and mentored her when she was a student and resident. To be successful in the ever-evolving health care system, Dr. Chan advises students and residents to (1) seize every opportunity when it appears; (2) accept criticism to decrease your blind spots, even if not presented in a constructive way; and (3) never be afraid/reluctant to voice your thoughts and/or opinions because you never know. Dr. Chan’s motto is, “Ask and you may receive, give and you will receive.”

March 2013

Dr. Emily Hawes is a clinical pharmacist practitioner, a designation by the North Carolina Boards of Medicine and Pharmacy conferring approval to provide collaborative drug therapy management under the direction of a licensed physician. She serves in this capacity at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Family Medicine Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and she is currently a clinical assistant professor at the UNC School of Medicine. In 2006, Dr. Hawes earned her B.S. degree in education and, in 2010, her Pharm.D. degree, both from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. In 2011, she completed a PGY1 pharmacy practice residency and, the next year, completed a PGY2 pharmacotherapy residency—both earned at the University of North Carolina Hospitals and Clinics in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Dr. Hawes practices at the UNC Family Medicine Center, an ambulatory care site with a pharmacist-led pharmacotherapy clinic focusing on the management of chronic diseases such as anticoagulation, heart failure, hypertension, diabetes, asthma, chronic pain, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as well as medication reconciliation after hospital discharge during multidisciplinary visits. She also serves as a preceptor for pharmacy residents and students through the University of North Carolina Eshelman School of Pharmacy. She has the additional responsibilities of teaching Family Medicine medical residents, responding to drug information inquiries for the Family Medicine team, developing and evaluating medication-related policies and procedures, contributing to various quality improvement initiatives, and providing recommendations, counseling, and education to patients as needed. With respect to her research endeavors, Dr. Hawes was recently awarded a grant from the American College of Clinical Pharmacy for a prospective pharmacodynamic study evaluating peak and trough coagulation test results in patients taking therapeutic doses of rivaroxaban.

Dr. Hawes chose clinical pharmacy as a profession by seeking God’s particular place of service in her life. Throughout many years of living abroad and one experience after another, she felt her heart was turned to serve those who are physically hurting. One experience influencing her drive toward health care was during her visit to an isolated leper colony in northern India with her family. She met a woman in a mud hut whose hands were both covered in open sores and whose fingers had disintegrated; this woman suffered from leprosy. Without any fingers, she could only watch as her daughter cleaned the rice for supper. To move from place to place, she painfully shuffled her body along the dirt ground. The daughter explained that they been forced to abandon their old homes and permanently seclude themselves from the rest of society. She then asked, “But, Emily, have you come to help? Did you bring medicine? Can you cure my mother?” At this moment, Dr. Hawes realized she wanted to do more than just smile and empathize with others in agony. She wanted to provide a service to help physical suffering.

One of Dr. Hawes’ undergraduate professors encouraged her to explore the field of pharmacy. Positive experiences shadowing pharmacists inspired her to pursue this wonderful profession. During her first month of PGY1 residency while rotating with an exceptional pharmacist at UNC’s Family Medicine Center, she discovered the valuable role of a clinical pharmacist in the primary care setting. The passion to provide pharmacy services across diverse patient populations of all ages led her to pursue a PGY2 in pharmacotherapy, and she went on to serve as a pharmacist in the primary care setting at a great institution with extraordinary colleagues.

Dr. Hawes attributes mentorship as the single most important influence on her career. Several professors and preceptors at Samford and UNC significantly affected her professional development. This included contributing to her decision to pursue pharmacy, increasing her passion for the profession, and directing her to residency training, which led to a position in a primary care setting. The leadership of her mentors was exemplified in the ways they served, respected, listened, motivated, taught, and communicated to help learners realize their maximum potential. Leadership is all about influence and service through building relationships and taking the time to really learn about one’s background, goals, and motivations. Through the years, mentors have shown what it means to provide exceptional care to patients, continually self-evaluate, make evidence-based decisions, maintain a high standard of integrity and excellence, act professionally, serve selflessly, live in a balanced way, integrate with a multidisciplinary team, advocate for pharmacy, be a lifelong learner, count blessings, and accomplish responsibilities effectively and efficiently, among other traits. Even now, being mentored by outstanding pharmacists and other health care providers helps Dr. Hawes grow as a leader, practitioner, educator, and preceptor. It is out of gratitude for the many individuals who have invested in her that she is inspired to mentor others and help prepare the next generation of pharmacists.

People would be surprised to know that she met Princess Diana in Pakistan during elementary school, played the position of goalkeeper for her college soccer team, and went skydiving for her 1-year wedding anniversary.

January 2013

Marissa Escobar Quinones, Pharm.D., CDE, is a clinical pharmacy specialist in ambulatory care at Parkland in Dallas, Texas. She works at Southeast Dallas Health Center, which is one of Parkland’s Community-Oriented Primary Care Clinics. Dr. Quinones received her B.S. degree from Texas State University in May 2000 and her Pharm.D. degree from the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Pharmacy (TTUHSC SOP) in May 2004. She then completed both an American Society of Health-System Pharmacists–accredited pharmacy practice and ambulatory care specialty residency with the Veterans Affairs North Texas Medical Center and TTUHSC SOP in Dallas, Texas, from 2004 to 2006.

Dr. Quinones primarily works with indigent patients of Dallas County. She provides drug therapy management services, evaluates medication nonadherence, and assesses for polypharmacy in patients with diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, anticoagulation therapy, and heart failure by a collaborative practice agreement. Dr. Quinones has prescriptive authority in Texas as part of her collaborative practice agreement. Dr. Quinones is a Certified Diabetes Educator who serves as a diabetes instructor and assists with the coordination of the Parkland’s American Diabetes Association educational program, which was recognized as the Diabetes Site of the Year in 2011. She serves on Parkland’s Diabetes Advisory Council and was named as the Diabetes Educator of the year in 2011.

In addition to her direct patient care responsibilities, Dr. Quinones provides mentorship and clinical experiences to the Parkland pharmacy practice and ambulatory care pharmacy specialty residents. She is an adjunct faculty at TTUHSC SOP and preceptor-faculty for the University of Texas College of Pharmacy, where she precepts clerkship students. Dr. Quinones actively participates in various administrative duties within the pharmacy department to improve patient care in a cost-effective manner. She performs drug use evaluations, non-formulary medication reviews, drug information consults, and in-services to various disciplines. Her research focus is the impact of clinical pharmacy services on patient outcomes and cost avoidance.

Dr. Quinones believes that leadership is an important part of the clinical pharmacist’s role. She is an active member of ACCP and the Texas Society of Health-System Pharmacists. She has served as the chair for the Ambulatory Care and Endocrine and Metabolism PRNs of ACCP. Dr. Quinones has also served as the president and secretary for the Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) local chapter of the ACCP. Dr. Quinones has presented various posters at ACCP highlighting the work of the Endocrine and Ambulatory Care PRNs. She recently presented a collaborative research project highlighting the impact of clinical pharmacy services on diabetic outcomes and cost avoidance at Parkland at the 2012 ACCP Annual Meeting in Hollywood, Florida.

Dr. Quinones was introduced to clinical pharmacy services while on rotations as a third-year pharmacy student at TTUHSC SOP. She worked with Dr. Krystal Edwards, who provided services to indigent patients with diabetes, many of whom were Spanish speaking or had comorbidities. She recalls a particular Spanish-speaking patient who required insulin adjustments and was having major health problems when he presented at his initial visit for diabetes management. Dr. Edwards assigned this patient to her, and each week, the patient was contacted by telephone to review his glucose levels, answer questions, and make recommendations under the faculty’s supervision. The improvements the patient made with the clinical pharmacist were amazing as the rotation progressed. Through this rotation, she became interested in learning more about clinical pharmacy as a career. She learned clinical pharmacists are instrumental as part of the health care team. This experience taught her the value of a clinical pharmacist in improving the health of patients. During her fourth year, she decided to pursue a pharmacy practice residency, which is when she realized she enjoyed ambulatory care pharmacy. This, in turn, led her to pursue an ambulatory care specialty residency. She is thankful for her mentors and the experiences she has encountered, having made her the practitioner she is today.

To this day, she continues to spend most of her time at her practice site, educating patients and managing their medical conditions. She is passionate about serving and educating patients. Many patients do not know about their disease and the importance of medication adherence. Dr. Quinones believes that being passionate about patient care is an important part of being a clinical pharmacist because they are an integral part of the care patients receive. She enjoys helping patients because many need health care services, given that they are unable to read or write or are nonadherent because of various social and economical barriers. Several patients cannot afford their medications and sometimes do not have enough money to eat healthy. Dr. Quinones is able to work one-on-one with all of her patients, tailoring the education according to their needs. Her mission is to improve the health of her patients by ensuring their adherence to medications and gradual modifications in lifestyle, together with providing the education they need to make better choices. Dr. Quinones has an interest in health literacy and has provided various educational programs about the importance of better communication with patients having limited health literacy. She emphasizes the importance of learning to communicate effectively with patients.

Dr. Quinones enjoys the networking and educational opportunities ACCP provides. She believes leadership is an important part of her success. Being an active member of ACCP has been rewarding. She attends the ACCP Annual Meeting every year. She has met various members throughout the United States, and ACCP has been instrumental in her growth as a practitioner. Through the years, she has encouraged students and residents to become part of ACCP and has helped move the organization and the role of clinical pharmacists forward. She believes that being active in professional pharmacy organizations and giving back to the pharmacy profession is an integral part of her role as a clinical pharmacy specialist.

Through the years, she has learned the importance of finding a work-life balance as a clinical pharmacist. She focuses on teaching her residents and students the importance of family, work, and personal life and how to balance all the demands the clinical pharmacist will face. Most people cannot believe how well she is able to balance her home life with her work life—something she has worked on for many years. She believes that everyone should have some time to reflect on himself or herself, make time in the day to do something enjoyable, and recognize that family time is important.

Dr. Quinones enjoys traveling, taking pictures, working out, and spending quality time with her family. She likes the outdoors, camping, and trips to South Padre Island, Texas, which is her favorite beach. She has a very supportive husband and two beautiful children who keep her busy. An active member of the Weight Watchers program since 2011, she lost more than 60 pounds. Through this experience, she learned new ways to cook and prepare balanced, nutritional meals for her family. She enjoys finding ways to keep her kids interested in healthy eating habits.

September 2012

Christopher Frei, Pharm.D., M.Sc., is an associate professor of pharmacy at The University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio School of Medicine. Dr. Frei completed his Pharm.D. degree (2001), master’s degree (2003), residency (2003), and postdoctoral training (2005) at the UT Austin and the UT Health Science Center. He joined the faculty at both universities in January 2006. Dr. Frei is a Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist who studies clinically important infectious diseases, including pneumonia, skin and soft tissue infections, and HIV. He is particularly interested in emerging antibiotic resistance among gram-positive bacteria including Staphylococcus aureus. His research approach involves pharmacoepidemiology, comparative-effectiveness, and microbial genomics.

Dr. Frei has been a principal investigator/coinvestigator for 12 different studies supported by the NIH, the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists, and the pharmaceutical industry. He has published 57 peer-reviewed papers in leading medical and scientific journals, including the American Journal of Medicine, Antimicrobial Agents in Chemotherapy, Chest, Clinical Microbiology and Infection, Drugs, Pharmacotherapy, Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, and Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine. He has also given more than 260 national, state, and local presentations. This past year, Dr. Frei was promoted to an associate professor with tenure at the UT Austin. He was also recognized as “Mentor of the Year” by the Texas Society of Health-System Pharmacists, “Young Investigator of the Year” by the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists, and “Distinguished Young Alumnus of the Year” by the UT Austin College of Pharmacy.

Dr. Frei spends 75% of his time conducting patient-oriented research and teaching pharmacy graduate students. He participated in ACCP’s Focused Investigator Training (FIT) Program in 2008 and considers the program an integral part of his research and career development. In 2010, Dr. Frei received a 2-year grant for a project titled “Genetics, Resistance, and Treatment in a South Texas Practice-Based Research Network.” His grant is a Mentored Research and Career Development Program (KL2) in Clinical and Translational Sciences, funded by NIH’s National Center for Research Resources.

Dr. Frei is a firm believer in the importance of mentorship. He attributes his success to his mentors at the UT Austin, ACCP’s FIT Program, and the NIH/KL2 career development program. He is grateful to his wife and family who have supported him throughout his career, the administrators at the UT Austin for the research support they have provided, and his current and former graduate students, whom he considers his extended family.

Dr. Frei believes ACCP has played a key role in his professional development. He joined the organization as a resident in 2001, presented his first poster at an ACCP Annual Meeting, and published his first paper in the journal Pharmacotherapy. He highly values the opportunities he has had to work with colleagues from across the country on initiatives such as ACCP’s Practice-Based Research Network. He encourages pharmacy students to become involved in ACCP through his role as the ACCP College of Pharmacy Liaison for the UT Austin College of Pharmacy.

People may be surprised to know that Dr. Frei is an avid consumer of books and lectures on leadership and mentorship. Some of his favorites include The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Stephen Covey, 1989), Making the Right Moves (Laura Bonetta, 2006), At the Helm (Kathy Barker, 2010), The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (Patrick Lencioni, 2002), and The Last Lecture (Randy Pausch, 2007). He spends most of his free time “at the ranch” with his family or “with the kids” at their baseball and softball games.

July 2012

Dr. Eric Tichy is a clinical pharmacy specialist at Yale-New Haven Transplantation Center (YNHTC), where he is a member of the heart, kidney, and liver transplant teams. In 2009, he established YNHTC’s PGY2 Transplant Pharmacy Residency, and currently, he serves as the program’s director. He holds adjunct faculty appointments at the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy and Duquesne University Mylan School of Pharmacy. Dr. Tichy received his Pharm.D. degree from the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy and completed his pharmacy practice residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital. He is a board-certified pharmacotherapy specialist.

During his career, Dr. Tichy has established himself as a leader in clinical pharmacy with a focus in transplantation. His involvement in several projects has helped advance pharmacy practice in the field of transplantation, including his service as the coauthor of a white paper describing the role of the transplant pharmacist and as a founding member of the American Society of Transplantation’s (AST) Transplant Pharmacist Community of Practice (CoP). His present practice focuses on the education and training of new practitioners from many health science disciplines. He is currently chair-elect of the AST’s Transplant Pharmacist CoP.

Dr. Tichy chose transplant pharmacy because it gave him the opportunity to use all of his clinical training and skills. He enjoys the opportunity to interact with and contribute directly toward the care of patients with multiple disease states. Moreover, in transplant pharmacy, an expert knowledge of pharmacotherapy is essential because of the many potential drug interactions and adverse effects that are encountered on a daily basis. He summarized his passion for his chosen specialty by saying,

Transplant pharmacy is simply nirvana for the ambitious clinical pharmacist, and I have found transplant a perfect fit for my skill sets and interests. There are a large number of myths and misconceptions in the community regarding organ and tissue donation and transplantation. As a transplant clinician, I see firsthand the profoundly positive impact transplantation has on the lives of individual patients and their families. To help face these myths and misconceptions, I get involved with efforts to provide education in the community regarding these issues, and I see myself as a witness spreading the good news about transplantation. I have presented at schools, churches, and within my local pharmacist society. In addition to raising awareness about the need for organ and tissue donors, I love to encourage talented young people to consider careers in transplantation because we need to continually recruit the best and brightest to advance the profession.

Dr. Tichy believes that ACCP membership has provided him an invaluable opportunity to network with colleagues from around the country. The relationships he has formed have led to significant career benefits, and he considers his fellow Immunology/Transplantation PRN members to be part of his extended family. He has developed many great friendships through the PRN and enjoys reconnecting with many of them on the PRN’s e-mail list and at ACCP meetings.

Outside work, Dr. Tichy enjoys being outdoors. An avid hunter and fisherman, he commented, “I love getting outdoors. Depending on the season, you might find me in the woods with a bow or on a boat with a pole on my day off.”

May 2012

Dr. Nicole Gillespie is an assistant professor and clinical pharmacist at Creighton University School of Pharmacy and Health Professions in Omaha, Nebraska. Dr. Gillespie became interested in chronic disease management and lifestyle medicine while earning her Pharm.D. degree and completing her postgraduate training at Creighton. During her residency, she worked closely with the Creighton University Cardiovascular Risk Reduction Program and helped implement the university’s Diabetes Mellitus Risk Reduction Program. After completing her residency, she elected to stay on as faculty while working full-time with the Risk Reduction Programs at Creighton. Each service enrolls Creighton University employees with chronic disease states, including hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes. Each pharmacist-run service takes a multidisciplinary approach toward patient care using dieticians, physical therapists, exercise physiologists, and licensed mental health care practitioners. The Risk Reduction teams at Creighton also work closely with each participant’s physicians to optimize medication therapy, increase participant education, and incorporate lifestyle medicine to improve participant outcomes. She also serves as a preceptor for students at this unique clinical practice site. The faculty appointment gives her the opportunity to teach about what she loves—prevention—and expose students to the effect pharmacists can have on the health and quality of life of their patients. In addition to precepting students, Dr. Gillespie lectures in various didactic courses and works with the residents from the Creighton University Community Pharmacy Residency Program.

Nicole is active in local, state, and regional organizations. She is president-elect of the Midwest College of Clinical Pharmacy and an appointed member of the legislative committee for the Nebraska Pharmacists Association. She was awarded Distinguished Young Pharmacist of Nebraska by the Nebraska Pharmacists Association and Pharmacists Mutual, and she received the Governor’s Point of Light Award for her group volunteer work in the community.

Dr. Gillespie chose the pharmacy profession, specifically preventive pharmacy, because she believes there is a void in this type of care in the current health care system. She believes that health care has become increasingly effective at treating acute problems, but less so at avoiding these problems altogether, and that clinical pharmacists are armed with the tools necessary to bridge this gap. They are experts in optimizing chronic disease medication regimens, capable of monitoring, assessing efficacy, and increasing patient education and medication adherence. With the help of additional lifestyle medicine training, pharmacists can be extremely effective at decreasing chronic disease risk and improving patient outcomes, including quality of life. As a result, they can make a significant impact on preventing costly hospital and emergency department visits, which are of paramount importance in the state of our current health care system.

The obesity epidemic, as well as the increasing incidence of chronic disease in the pediatric population, has been a big influence on Dr. Gillespie’s career, and she believes that as health care providers, we need to focus more on improving in this area for our patients. Moreover, together with obesity and chronic disease comes decreased quality of life. If the obesity and chronic disease trends continue to move in the current direction, there is a gloomy forecast for our future. One of her career goals is to seek out solutions to help patients take control of their health. One individual who has been extremely influential on Dr. Gillespie’s career is her mentor and colleague Dr. Thomas L. Lenz, Pharm.D., M.A., FACLM. Dr. Lenz has been a proponent of lifestyle medicine in pharmacy practice for years. He wrote the book Lifestyle Modifications in Pharmacotherapy, started an elective lifestyle modifications course for pharmacy students at Creighton, conceived and developed the Cardiovascular Risk Reduction Program, and continues to advocate for additional lifestyle-related education to health care professionals and students.

Dr. Gillespie believes that ACCP is, in many ways, an excellent venue to foster ideas and promote the profession of pharmacy. The mission and philosophy of the organization clearly indicate that the advocacy for the advancement of human health and expansion of pharmacy practice are among the reasons ACCP exists. This community of advocacy is extremely important in shaping the future of our profession. Furthermore, being a member of ACCP has afforded her the opportunity to take part in this community and have a voice in its advocacy endeavors. She is grateful for the networking, idea sharing, and continuing education ACCP provides and hopes to give back to the organization by continuing to further the risk reduction programs at Creighton and by encouraging involvement to her colleagues and students.

March 2012

Dr. Shareen El-Ibiary is an associate professor of pharmacy practice at Midwestern University College of Pharmacy in Glendale, Arizona. She received her Pharm.D. degree from the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina, in 2000 and completed a general pharmacy practice residency at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in 2001, where she subsequently completed a certificate program for additional training in clinical research. She has been board certified in pharmacotherapy since 2003. Dr. El-Ibiary started her academic career at UCSF in the area of drug information, where her interest in women’s health developed from receiving several consumer questions pertaining to that area. She made the change to focus on women’s health and worked in a specialty clinic in the latter part of her time at USCF. During her time in California, she was very active in local, state, and national organizations. She was president of the Golden Gate Society of Health-System Pharmacists and, in 2007, became a fellow of the California Society of Health-System Pharmacists. She has been the public policy liaison and chair of the ACCP Women’s Health Practice and Research Network (PRN) and is currently an ACCP College of Pharmacy Faculty Liaison. She has been awarded project preceptor of the year and the Dean’s Apple Award for Teaching Excellence at UCSF.

Three years ago, she made the move to Midwestern University in Glendale, Arizona, where she maintains an internal medicine practice at Banner Thunderbird Medical Center. Although her practice is internal medicine, she maintains a strong interest in women’s health and continues to collaborate with others in the field. Her areas of interest and research include women’s health, specifically hormones and contraception, pharmacogenetics, and innovative teaching. Dr. El-Ibiary currently teaches a variety of courses at the College and coordinates a women’s health elective, as well as a first-year pharmacy course, “Integrated Sequences 2 and Professional Skills Development.” She is involved in many different publications, including writing a PSAP chapter in women’s health and serving as the women’s health section editor and chapter author for Koda-Kimble’s Applied Therapeutics. She also serves on the editorial board for the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association and is a current faculty member of ACCP’s Updates in Therapeutics®: The Pharmacotherapy Preparatory Review and Recertification Course.

Dr. El-Ibiary’s early exposure to the health care setting came from her mother, a physician. Dr. El-Ibiary showed an early interest in the sciences, and her love of teaching led her to seek a career path that would encompass each of these areas. She first became interested in clinical pharmacy while working as a pharmacy technician and pursuing her undergraduate degree. In particular, she liked the idea of making interventions and counseling patients. What cemented her future career choice, though, came later in pharmacy school, when she identified with one of her professors who was a clinical specialist and whose faculty job description sounded like the ideal career path. She saw that, as a faculty member, she could combine the clinical/science aspect of pharmacy with her love of teaching in an academic setting. She sought out information on how her professor obtained her position, which set her on a path that has allowed her to touch the lives of numerous students, patients, and colleagues.

ACCP has been an integral part of Dr. El-Ibiary’s career. Many of her opportunities have come to her through her involvement with the College. When she first started as a faculty member, she saw a meeting announcement for the ACCP Annual Meeting and noted that a pre-seminar workshop for junior faculty was scheduled. Although she was unfamiliar with the organization at the time, she attended the session, which she believes was one of her best decisions. She met other junior faculty starting out, made several friends/connections, and learned about finding a mentor and ways to deal with struggles in academia. It was an excellent seminar. She enjoyed every aspect of the meeting and met experts in various fields. As she focused her interests on women’s health, she found the Women’s Health where she connected with other colleagues interested in and dedicated to women’s health. The connections she made through the PRN were priceless. From this group, ideas, opportunities, and growth in women’s health practice emerged. She was able to take more of a leadership role within the group, which provided her many opportunities with respect to collaborations, publications, and speaking engagements. Her knowledge in the area grew as well from learning about others’ practices and research endeavors. She is still in contact with many of the colleagues she met at her first meeting and continues to collaborate with them. She noted that many of her accomplishments would not have been possible were it not for her ACCP membership.

Dr. El-Ibiary has given back to ACCP by fostering student involvement. She is currently an ACCP College of Pharmacy Faculty Liaison for Midwestern, and she has served as a reviewer for the Clinical Pharmacy Challenge, Pharmacotherapy, and PSAP. She was the public policy liaison for 3 years and the chair/chair-elect for the Women’s Health PRN. She is currently a faculty member for ACCP’s Updates in Therapeutics®: The Pharmacotherapy Preparatory Review and Recertification Course, and she has presented regularly at ACCP Annual Meetings. She encourages others to join ACCP and hopes to continue to serve the College and help keep it growing so that others may benefit from it as she has.

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What is a CVV/CVN?

On most major credit cards, the CVV/CVN number can be found on the back of your credit card on, or near, the signature line. The image below is an
example of where a CVV/CVN is likely to appear on your credit card.

Note: For American Express credit cards, the CVV/CVN number appears on the front of the card.

Nick Peters, Pharm.D., BCCCP, BCPS, is a critical care and nutrition support clinical pharmacy specialist and PGY1 residency program coordinator at Suburban Hospital – Johns Hopkins Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland. In addition, Peters is the Recognition Committee chair for the ACCP Critical Care PRN and is the only pharmacist representative on the Society of Critical Care Medicine In-Training Selection committee. He earned his Pharm.D. degree from Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana; completed a PGY1 residency at TriStar Centennial Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, and a PGY2 specialty residency in critical care at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia; and earned Board of Pharmacy Specialties certification in both pharmacotherapy and critical care.

Peters recognizes that his mentors have shaped him into the pharmacist he is today. He specifically wishes to highlight the guidance and support he received from Christopher Paciullo, Pharm.D., FCCP; Stacey Folse, Pharm.D., MPH; and Alley Killian, Pharm.D., while he was a PGY2 resident at Emory University Hospital. Through these mentors, he learned that he "could contribute to clinical pharmacy through leadership, mentorship, research, multidisciplinary education, and professional organization involvement in addition to providing clinical services." Peters also credits them with instilling in him a sense of courage and confidence that helped set him on his professional path.

Peters has been an ACCP member since he was a pharmacy student and actively seeks out ways to give back to the College and the profession. In his words, ACCP has "given me the opportunity to meet, network with, learn from, and develop friendships with pharmacists from across the country." Moreover, "the education offered through ACCP has helped me grow as a clinical pharmacist, primary investigator, preceptor, and educator." Peters has served ACCP as an abstract, curriculum vitae, and poster reviewer, and he is active in the Critical Care PRN.

In addition to his professional pursuits, Peters' other passion is traveling. He has set a personal goal of visiting all seven continents and, to date, has visited three of the seven continents with plans to visit his fourth in the coming year. He believes in the power of positive thinking and imparting happiness toward others and aims to make memories, not only within his professional activities, but also personally, all over the world.

January 2017

Daniel Witt, Pharm.D., is a clinical professor and vice chair of the Department of Pharmacotherapy and assistant dean of clinical affairs at the University of Utah College of Pharmacy. He earned his BSPharm degree at the University of Utah and his Pharm.D. degree at the University of Washington (UW). He completed a clinical pharmacy residency at the UW Medical Center and Harborview Medical Center and an advanced residency in primary care and family medicine at the UW Medical Center. Witt is a Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist and a Fellow of ACCP. He serves on the board of directors for the Anticoagulation Forum (the Medical & Scientific Advisory Board of the National Blood Clot Alliance) and is a member of ASHP and the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis.

Witt specializes in anticoagulation therapy management at the University of Utah's thrombosis clinic. He is also responsible for supporting the Department of Pharmacotherapy's clinical enterprise and provides support to its clinical faculty. He is the chair of the newly created Pharm.D. project committee at University of Utah College of Pharmacy, which was created for Pharm.D. students to develop important research skills such as professional writing, critical thinking, and project management. Witt has written or cowritten over 90 journal articles and 11 book chapters and has given numerous lectures for continuing education programs. He was a panel member for the 2012 CHEST Consensus Guidelines for Antithrombotic Therapy and is currently a panel member for the venous thromboembolism guidelines being developed by the American Society of Hematology.

Witt's research interests focus on providing practical information on the use of anticoagulation therapy to front-line practitioners and patients. He is passionate about conducting anticoagulation therapy–related research projects focused on (1) documenting the clinical and economic impact of clinical pharmacy services, (2) providing optimal therapy management, and (3) providing evidence-based practical solutions to providers.

Witt states that his involvement with anticoagulation clinical practice was incidental. He did not intend to practice in this clinical area and initially believed that anticoagulation was uninteresting. However, he discovered how rewarding and challenging anticoagulation therapy can be and developed a passion for this clinical practice setting. Witt offers this advice to young pharmacists:

From my experiences, I would encourage young pharmacists not to try and plan out their careers too carefully. Be open to an unexpected detour every now and then that might open up a whole new world of the profession that you never imagined you would be interested in.

Witt states that many people have influenced him in his career. The two mentors with the most significant impact are Alan Ellsworth, Pharm.D., at UW and Dennis Helling, Pharm.D., recently retired from Kaiser Permanente Colorado. Ellsworth exposed Witt to the many opportunities available to clinical pharmacists and helped Witt develop his love for clinical research and ability to create research projects from clinical scenarios. Witt is grateful that Helling encouraged him to join the pharmacy team at Kaiser Permanente Colorado after his specialty residency. Witt credits Helling with providing significant mentorship and coaching that allowed Witt to develop the Clinical Pharmacy Anticoagulation Service and the Clinical Pharmacy Research Team at Kaiser Permanente.

On a personal note, Witt is involved with the Boy Scouts of America, "a wonderful organization that has provided me with opportunities to enjoy adventures in the outdoors and has provided me with some of the best leadership training available."

November 2016

Israa Fadhil Yaseen, BScPharm, BCPS, is completing the fourth and final year of her clinical pharmacy residency at the teaching hospitals of Medical City in Baghdad, Iraq. Yaseen graduated in 2006 from the University of Mosul College of Pharmacy in Iraq. After graduation, she worked in the pediatric hematology-oncology unit at the Ibn Al-Atheer Teaching Hospital for Children in Mosul for 2 years. She then became the director of the Drug Information Center at the hospital, where she was ranked first among other directors in the city. After working in an outpatient pharmacy for an additional 2 years at a rural health care center, Yaseen enrolled in her residency program in 2012.

During her residency training, Yaseen has trained in the cardiac care unit, conducted research on clopidogrel nonresponsiveness in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention, and enrolled in the Educational Training in Total Parenteral Nutrition program at the American University of Beirut. In July 2016, she became a Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist—the first female pharmacist in Iraq to hold the certification. Because of her achievements during her residency, Yaseen is now a candidate to become a Clinical Pharmacy Fellow in the Iraqi Board for Medical Specializations. In addition to her residency training, Yaseen is enrolled as an investigator in the EURObservational Research Programme of the European Society of Cardiology. Furthermore, she is the only resident member on a specialized physician committee working to design the Baghdad Dyslipidemia Protocol—the first dyslipidemia management protocol to be established in Iraq. Her professional affiliations include ACCP, where she is a member of the Cardiology PRN; the European Society of Cardiology; the American College of Cardiology; the International Society of Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy; and the Medical Education Committee of the cardiology department in Baghdad Teaching Hospital.

Yaseen’s decision to pursue clinical pharmacy was influenced largely by the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001. After achieving exceptional scores in high school, Yaseen had narrowed her career options to becoming an orthodontist, like her father, or a pharmacist, which was actually her father’s dream for her. After seeing the events of September 11 unfold in America and asking God for guidance, Yaseen decided to pursue pharmacy, with the hope of becoming involved in the Red Cross or another humanitarian organization. “I decided to become a pharmacist to help people and save lives all over the world,” she says.

Yaseen has had many mentors throughout her training and career. One such mentor is Dr. Lika’a Al-Kzayer, a pediatrician and head of the pediatric hematology-oncology unit at the Ibn Al-Atheer Teaching Hospital for Children. Yaseen states:

Dr. Al-Kzayer showed me the real meaning of teamwork. She is so faithful and sympathetic with patients, and this increased my interest in clinical work, especially in helping children patients with cancer.

Another such mentor is interventional cardiologist and president of Scientific Council of Cardiology, Professor Hasan Ali Al-Farhan. Of Al-Farhan, her supervisor in the cardiac care unit during residency training, Yaseen says, “He trusted me from the beginning and has encouraged and supported me from the moment I met him.” They have collaborated on several teams and projects, and Yaseen’s passion for cardiology is largely the result of Al-Farhan’s influence. “Dr. Al-Farhan increased my interest in cardiology and believes in the importance of clinical pharmacists in cardiovascular teamwork.” Finally, Yaseen’s father has played a vital role in her success. He instilled in her a passion for teaching and gave Yaseen her first opportunity to teach a didactic lecture on antibiotic and analgesic use in dentistry.

Yaseen expects her list of achievements to continue growing. Professionally, she wants to continue making an impact in the field of cardiology and hopes to be one of the first pharmacists to become board certified in cardiology through the Board of Pharmacy Specialties. In addition, she plans to get involved with humanitarian organizations, become fluent in French and Spanish, and travel the world.

September 2016

Edward Van Matre, Pharm.D., is a critical care fellow at the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Aurora, Colorado. He received his B.S. degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma, in 2010 and his Pharm.D. degree from the University of Colorado in 2014. After graduation, Van Matre completed a PGY1 pharmacy practice residency at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky, and a PGY2 specialty residency in critical care at the University of Colorado.

After completing his PGY2 residency, he began his critical care fellowship at the University of Colorado. This fellowship is multifaceted with a primary focus on clinical and benchtop research, specifically neurocritical and medical intensive care, as well as direct clinical patient care and didactic teaching. He is also currently enrolled in the M.S. degree program in clinical science at the University of Colorado. His goals on completing this program are to pursue a faculty position at a school of pharmacy and academic medical center and advance the practice of pharmacy and pharmaceutical application in critically ill patients through research.

Van Matre was drawn to clinical pharmacy because of his family’s values of altruism and service to the community. His mother is an emergency medicine nurse, and his father is a police officer. Spending countless meals and holidays with his family in an emergency department break room or a police station bullpen, Van Matre knew it was never a question of if he wanted to serve the community but how he would serve the community. He was originally drawn to the aspects of chemistry and biochemistry in pharmacy, but he took note of the profession’s evolving impact within hospital-based clinical settings. On entering pharmacy school, he recognized his ability to make quick decisions on the basis of partial or imperfect data, which drew him to the inpatient setting. He found this setting very rewarding because he could see the direct effects of clinician decisions when working as part of an interdisciplinary team. He was eventually led to critical care when he observed the immediate impact of pharmacotherapy on patient care. He continues to be driven in this field to use his knowledge and apply it through the scientific method to change practice. He hopes to further clinical pharmacy within the critical care setting through scholarship, clinical practice, and education of the next generation of clinical pharmacists.

Van Matre has been guided by a large group of mentors in his pharmacy school, residencies, and fellowship. Van Matre states:

This group of mentors is as diverse as the membership of ACCP, from junior ambulatory care faculty to fellows of the Society of Critical Care Medicine. They have all invested countless hours providing feedback, providing ideas, being excellent practice role models, and, above all else, listening.

He has particularly appreciated their ability to relate to him on both a personal and a professional level. Through them, he has learned how to lead, offer encouragement to others with a quiet comment, and balance his work and home life. He is very thankful for them, whom he credits as having helped make him a better pharmacist, researcher, educator, and husband.

On a personal note, one of his life goals is to hike all of Colorado’s 53 “fourteeners”—mountains 14,000 feet in elevation or higher. Because he grew up in Oklahoma, he did not have many opportunities to experience mountainous terrain. He particularly enjoys hiking the fourteeners because it provides a significant physical and mental challenge. Van Matre reflects:

Meeting these challenges allows me to step out into nature and helps to provide mental clarity in my everyday life. And who can’t beat the feeling of standing on top of the world!

July 2016

Sonak Pastakia, Pharm.D., MPH, BCPS, is an associate professor of pharmacy practice at Purdue University College of Pharmacy, an adjunct assistant professor at Indiana University School of Medicine, and a visiting lecturer at Moi University School of Medicine in Eldoret, Kenya. He practices as a full-time public health pharmacist based in Eldoret. Pastakia completed his Pharm.D. degree at Temple University School of Pharmacy and both a PGY1 and a PGY2 residency in HIV/infectious diseases at the University of North Carolina Hospitals. In addition, he earned an MPH degree at Harvard University School of Public Health and is on track to complete a Ph.D. degree with a focus on health economics at the University of Warwick in Coventry, UK, by the end of 2016.

In his current position as a public health pharmacist in Eldoret, Pastakia focuses his efforts on addressing the needs of underserved populations residing throughout rural western Kenya. He works with Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH)—one of the largest HIV treatment programs in sub-Saharan Africa, with over 150,000 ever-enrolled patients with HIV receiving care at over 500 facilities. Pastakia serves in several capacities, including as co-chair of the pharmacy working group, collaborator with the chronic disease management program (focused on diabetes and hypertension), principal investigator on a nationwide counterfeit detection program, principal investigator on the largest gestational diabetes study in a low- and middle-income country setting, and board member for a street youth drop-in center. Through his participation in the AMPATH program, he has helped AMPATH transition from an HIV-focused program to a comprehensive program focused on the many health and societal issues faced by rural, resource-constrained patients in western Kenya. In addition to his work in Kenya, he develops novel models of care delivery in India to increase access to underserved rural populations.

Pastakia is passionate about his work and devotes much time to community service in Kenya, including helping to implement several unique models that incorporate high-priority services like microfinance and agricultural support into a portable group-based health care delivery model. This model, Bridging Income Generation with Group Integrated Care (BIGPIC), has improved health and economic outcomes in the recently completed pilots. Moreover, he has played a role in implementing a novel approach to addressing the needs of street youths in western Kenya. Street youths are immersed within a practical educational model (a living laboratory) that teaches about the latest agriculture, energy, and engineering technologies to help them prepare for the jobs of tomorrow and successful reintegration back into the community. This educational model includes the use of remote-controlled drones to streamline farming activities, fabrication of utility vehicles for rural terrains, and creation of a permaculture farm to enrich the soil for future farming efforts.

When discussing what has most influenced his career, Pastakia states:

One of the things that I have marveled at throughout my career is the immense resilience of underserved populations. When these populations are forced to thrive in situations where nothing is easy or given, they consistently demonstrate a resourcefulness, for which I’ve developed an immense appreciation.

Pastakia goes on to state that his career has also been influenced by his desire to ease the burden these populations face so that they can redirect their resourcefulness toward other community-enriching activities. Addressing health needs is of vital importance, but Pastakia challenges us to think broader than this—programs that solely focus on the traditional elements of health care have a tendency to come up short if they don’t simultaneously address the basic needs for food and income security. He feels strongly that this “bigger-picture view” spans far beyond the traditional practice of clinical pharmacy and has largely influenced the trajectory of his career. Similarly, Pastakia offers this advice to trainees:

Try to rethink health care around the constraints that the populations we are trying to serve face, rather than continuing to build health care services around the interests of the providers delivering care. Instead of treating the small proportion of the population that is able to visit stationary facilities, we must figure out better ways to engage entire populations to maximize the clinical outcomes we desire.

Pastakia describes these simple realizations as the primary guiding principles for the many impactful programs he has helped develop in western Kenya and notes that these skills of adaptability will be crucial in a world with ever-growing limitations in resources.

May 2016

Marcia Buck, Pharm.D., B.S., is currently ACCP president-elect. She earned her degrees from Purdue University and completed a pediatric residency and fellowship at the Medical University of South Carolina. Currently, she holds numerous job titles: clinical coordinator for pediatrics and residency program director for the pediatric PGY2 at the University of Virginia (UVA) Health System; associate professor of pediatrics at the UVA School of Medicine; and clinical professor at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy. She has received several practice and teaching awards, including the UVA McLemore Birdsong Award for Excellence in Teaching. Examples of her multidisciplinary role in education include precepting PGY1 and PGY2 critical care and solid organ transplant pharmacy residents; training medical students, residents, and fellows; and participating in the pharmacy and nursing didactic and experiential education programs.

Buck credits Michael Reed, Pharm.D., FCCP, FCP, for shaping the way she practices and for her level of commitment to the profession. She was already an ACCP member when they met, but he encouraged her to expand her involvement. She started with her first committee appointment, went on to chair the Pediatrics Practice and Research Network (PRN), served on the Board of Regents, represented ACCP on the panel to develop the pediatric petition for the Board of Pharmacy Specialties and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ Task Force on Collaborative Practice, and is now the College’s president-elect.

“I’ve gained so much from serving in the organization,” she says. “I’ve had the opportunity to work with and learn from pediatric pharmacy leaders.” Moreover, “being a PRN member and serving on committees has allowed me to develop friendships with colleagues from institutions throughout the U.S. and Canada.”

With her background and varied experience, she continues to give back to the organization.

“As a clinical pharmacist working in an academic medical center without a school of pharmacy, I also bring a slightly different perspective to conversations about inter-professional practice, education and research that I hope will add value to many of ACCP’s current initiatives.”

Like her service to the profession and to ACCP, her professional and scholarly contributions continue to grow. She has published articles in many peer-reviewed journals, including Pharmacotherapy, and has written chapters for the Pharmacotherapy Self-Assessment Program (PSAP). She also produces a monthly open-access newsletter, Pediatric Pharmacotherapy, which is published through the UVA Department of Pediatrics. As coeditor for the Pediatric Self-Assessment Program (PedSAP), she aims to provide an effective tool for recertification. With each experience, she has grown as a writer and encourages leaders in our field to mentor junior professionals in their publishing career.

Writing is a true passion for Buck. Recently, she put her skills to the test by writing a book about the fascinating history of the antique house she owns and shares with her husband. Originally built as a tavern in the mid-1700s, Buck’s house belonged to one of Thomas Jefferson’s sisters and her husband, and Buck has journal entries written by Jefferson about going there for dinner and entertainment. The transition from pharmacy-related therapeutic reviews to narrative prose is not exactly seamless, however, and Buck admits that a friend deemed her first draft “a great cure for insomnia.” She is working hard to address these comments and strives to write a story that you cannot put down.

March 2016

Andrew Abe, Pharm.D., is a clinical pharmacist specializing in managed care and drug information at AlohaCare in Honolulu, Hawaii. AlohaCare is a local nonprofit health plan that provides services to the underserved population of Hawaii. Abe works with pharmacists and technicians to process medication prior authorizations and manages the Medicare and Medicaid formulary for AlohaCare. He enjoys using the drug information and literature evaluation skills he gained in both pharmacy school and fellowship training to appropriately determine the medical necessity of a recommended therapy.

Abe earned his Pharm.D. degree at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, in 2011. After graduation, he completed a 2-year research fellowship in drug information and evidence-based practice at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. During his fellowship, he served as a drug information rotation preceptor to advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) students and assisted in managing the hospital formulary. His research interests concentrated on dietary supplements and relevant drug information for practicing pharmacists. After completing his fellowship program, he accepted a position at the University of Kansas (KU) as a drug information specialist responsible for managing the drug information center. In addition, as a clinical assistant professor at KU, he taught the drug information and biostatistics course and an elective Medicare course, served as a preceptor to APPE students, and was the faculty adviser for the KU Kappa Psi chapter.

The decision to work in drug information, academia, and managed care came from his desire to keep up to date on new medications and their impact on patient care. Abe states that this was not always his career path in pharmacy school because he was unaware of the many opportunities available, but he liked the idea of being a career student (albeit without midterms and finals, of course). While on his rotations, he explored options within pharmacy and found gratification in making clinical decisions—based on evidence—that would have a large impact on patient populations. Abe states:

When I discovered that there was a career in pharmacy doing just that, I worked hard to make sure my training and experience made me qualified. I feel fortunate that my career has allowed me to be a lifelong student with the ability to positively impact patient medication therapy.

Abe credits his involvement with the Kappa Psi Gamma Nu chapter at the University of the Pacific for influencing his career the most. “A lot of who and where I am as a clinical pharmacist has revolved around my involvement with Kappa Psi.” He acknowledges his fraternity brothers for providing excellent guidance on how to be successful in school and for offering advice on a variety of career paths and training opportunities beyond earning the Pharm.D. degree. “I can honestly say that through Kappa Psi I have made friends and colleagues at every step of my career. Their mentorship during my career has been instrumental to my successes.”

Involvement with ACCP and its Drug Information Practice and Research Network (DI PRN) has enabled Abe to form relationships with like-minded clinical pharmacists. Abe recognizes that although all pharmacy organizations have their benefits, ACCP provides an opportunity to collaborate with clinical pharmacists who share his passion for drug information, which has been instrumental in helping him develop his personal clinical practice. He appreciates the valuable time-saving advice he has received from members of the DI PRN. Abe adds that the PRN’s e-mail list and networking meetings have enabled him to communicate with leaders in his field, helping him grow all aspects of his practice. Even though Abe is relatively new to ACCP, he is determined to give back more than he has received. Abe contributes to the College by reviewing curricula vitae, participating in the DI PRN, and being involved in committees.

January 2016

Craig Beavers, Pharm.D., graduated in 2009 from the University of Kentucky (UK) College of Pharmacy and completed a PGY1 pharmacy practice residency and a PGY2 cardiology pharmacy residency at UK Albert B. Chandler Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. Beavers is a clinical pharmacist and the cardiology pharmacy residency program director at TriStar Centennial Medical Center and the corporate director of cardiovascular services for the Hospital Corporation of America. He has worked as adjunct faculty for Lipscomb University College of Pharmacy, University of Tennessee College of Pharmacy, and UK College of Pharmacy. Beavers currently serves as the co-chair of the clinical pharmacist workgroup of the American College of Cardiology and as a member of the Cardiovascular Team Council and Surviving Acute Myocardial Infarction Steering Committee. He is the first pharmacist to be a Cardiovascular Professional for the Society for Cardiac Angiography and Interventions and serves on its quality committee. He has served as the vice chair and chair of the ACCP Cardiology PRN Student and Resident Committee and currently serves as the PRN’s secretary/treasurer. He has published numerous papers, abstracts, and textbook chapters with a focus on cardiovascular pharmacotherapy. He is board certified in pharmacotherapy with added qualifications in cardiology and is a certified anticoagulation care provider. He is a fellow of the American Heart Association and an associate of the American College of Cardiology.

As a cardiovascular clinical pharmacist, Beavers serves adult acute care cardiovascular patients in the coronary care unit and wards and the cardiac catheterization laboratory. In this position, he can participate in physician rounds, assist with quality improvement, provide patient education, and provide training and education to pharmacy residents, pharmacy students, and cardiology fellows and interns. Beavers provides lectures and other services as an adjunct faculty member. Because his position allows for research and other academic pursuits, he is currently enrolled in a Ph.D. degree program in clinical and translational science.

When discussing who influenced his career the most, Beavers states, “I found that the world around me, past and present, provides constant influence and motivation. First and foremost, my family has a strong pull on my life.” He explains:

My drive for success comes in efforts to support my family and in return, my family provides me the grounding I often need. I would not be half the man I am today without my wife, daughter, mother, father, brothers, and others. Beyond this, there are so many people who do amazing things, even more amazing than anything I think I have done, that I aspire to model. People I work with or admire provide me confidence to be able to accomplish any dream; knowing the things they have faced or how they get things done. I find it important to be well-rounded and often find influence in historical figures, such as John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and Walt Disney to name a few, who worked hard and came from nothing.

Beavers would advise people, regardless of practice, profession, or background, to be open to all sources of inspiration and continue to learn. He says, “The world is full of glorious people, events, music, art, books, theater, sports, and ideas that can be applied to your daily life; you just need to be open to them.” He challenges others to set daily learning goals and goals for keeping up-to-date. He states:

I would challenge everyone to be open-minded when approaching anything. You will find the biggest limitation in life can be yourself. Sometimes you have to cast a wide net to catch some fish. Finally, be willing to take calculated risks.

Beavers participates annually in the American Heart Association’s Heart Walk as a local team leader/captain and assists with fundraising. He and his wife hope to start a Dolly Parton Imagination Library program in Central Kentucky, which provides one free book a month to all children 0–5 years of age who participate. He aspires to visit all 50 states and learn to play the piano.

November 2015

Deeter Neumann is pursuing his Pharm.D. degree, with an emphasis in leadership and research, at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy with an expected graduation date of May 2016. He received his B.S. degree in genetics from the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 2009.

Throughout his time at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy, Neumann has been engaged in numerous organizations and has been a member of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy since the first year of his professional studies. He was actively involved with chartering the Minnesota Student College of Clinical Pharmacy and then served as president the following year. Neumann currently serves as a member at-large for the 2015–2016 ACCP National Student Network Advisory Committee.

Outside the college of pharmacy, Neumann is one of the lead pharmacist-interns at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, a 629-bed quaternary/tertiary care community teaching hospital. As a lead intern, he focuses on incorporating 19 interns into the hospital’s drug distribution and medication reconciliation services. In addition, Neumann works in the emergency department and various patient care units completing medication history interviews. In this capacity, he assesses patients’ home medication regimens for possible drug-related admissions and provides recommendations for optimizing pharmacotherapy. Neumann is also a pharmacist-intern at Fairview Home Infusion of Fairview Pharmacy Services. In this role, he has been trained in sterile compounding and preparing outpatient parenteral medications in a variety of administration devices.

On graduation, Neumann intends to further develop his clinical knowledge, leadership abilities, and research skills by completing a PGY1 pharmacy practice residency. After completing the PGY1, Neumann fully expects to specialize his clinical practice by completing a PGY2 residency in oncology.

Neumann’s interest in pharmacotherapy began during his undergraduate studies in genetics, immunology, and physiology. An introduction to pharmacology course stimulated his curiosity about pharmacologic treatment and pharmacogenomics. Neumann became interested in oncology pharmacy when he studied the role of genetics and immunology in malignancies and potential future treatment options.

Neumann credits Drs. Todd Sorensen, Rebecca Fahrenbruch, Debra Skaar, and Pamala Jacobson with positively influencing his professional development. Sorensen’s Leading Change in Pharmacy course taught him the importance of self-reflection; Fahrenbruch challenged him to be involved within the college of pharmacy as well as professional organizations, and he continues to serve as a mentor; Skaar, a faculty liaison for ACCP and a strong advocate for the College, encouraged his involvement and leadership within the organization; and Jacobson challenged him to expand his knowledge base while continuously reinforcing the importance of discipline and self-motivation.

Neumann’s advice to all student pharmacists interested in clinical pharmacy is to spend time shadowing pharmacists in areas that stimulate their interest. In addition to providing didactic and experiential education, these experiences can help narrow potential career paths and provide an opportunity to find a mentor. Neumann emphasizes that his mentors have challenged both his professional and his personal abilities, and the mentor-mentee relationship has been an unrivaled source of wisdom for him. He stresses that this relationship is reciprocal because he believes the mentor finds satisfaction from observing professional growth.

Neumann’s life goal is to travel the world to enjoy all the exotic places it has to offer. He hopes to initiate his travels soon after finishing his residency training with a trip to the Galápagos Islands to observe the variety of wildlife that inhabit the archipelago.

September 2015

Tamara Malm, Pharm.D., MPH, BCPS, is an assistant professor of pharmacy practice and administration at the University of Saint Joseph in Hartford, Connecticut. She serves as a preceptor for the ambulatory care rotation for pharmacy students in the adult primary care clinic at Yale-New Haven Hospital. This clinic provides many services, including hypertension, addiction, diabetes, anticoagulation, and urgent care, but most of her time is focused in the transitional care clinic. Developing clinical pharmacy services in the transitional care clinic was the focus of her PGY2 research project, which has turned into an extremely rewarding position. The primary goal of the clinic is to provide continuity of care for patients between the hospital and home. Important issues such as medication accessibility, affordability, and education are addressed at follow-up appointments with a multidisciplinary team consisting of an attending and resident physician, licensed practical nurse, social worker, pharmacist, and pharmacy student. Malm aims to expand this service during the next year by adding home and virtual visits by pharmacists, pharmacy students, and residents to reach even more patients during critical transitions. Malm believes that educating patients on their medications and making interventions on medication discrepancies keeps her focused on the significance of her position, while educating pharmacy students and asking meaningful research questions helps expand her breadth of knowledge.

Malm’s journey to pharmacy began when she packed up her horse, cat, and personal belongings to move to Lexington, Kentucky, for undergraduate training at the University of Kentucky. She fell in love with the Bluegrass state and decided to stay and complete both her Pharm.D. and MPH degrees in 2013. The clinical challenge of her neurocritical care experiential rotation drove her to pursue postgraduate training. She completed a PGY1 residency program at Vidant Medical Center in Greenville, North Carolina. With determination, persistence, and leadership, she successfully completed her research project, “Ensuring Safety and Accuracy of Admission Medication Histories in a Technician-Run Service.” Her mentors Kathey Rumley, Pharm.D., Leigh Gurley, Pharm.D., and Carol Labadie, Pharm.D., taught her how to manage others, develop and redesign a clinical service, track and trend medication errors, provide constructive feedback, and relay important results to key stakeholders. Malm believes the PGY1 residency program was one of her most rewarding experiences thus far, and over the course of that year, she recognized her strengths in leadership, management, and medication safety. Malm completed a PGY2 residency in health-system pharmacy administration at Yale-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut, and then achieved credentialing as a Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist (BCPS). She is extremely thankful to all of her mentors during both her PGY1 and PGY2 residencies, who helped develop her clinical management acumen and provided her with challenging opportunities at every turn.

As a student, Malm recognized during her first ACCP Annual Meeting that ACCP is a unique and special professional pharmacy organization. Malm believes that there is so much to be gained at each ACCP meeting, including opportunities for organizational involvement, networking, idea sharing, and expanding therapeutics knowledge. She attends a wide variety of programming sessions at each ACCP meeting, but her favorite sessions include recent updates in drug therapy, new and innovative practice models, and the best paper presentations. She is inspired by the range of experience among the pharmacist attendees at the sessions, and this motivates her to push the boundaries of pharmacy practice. Malm has been very active in ACCP since joining several years ago. She recently completed her term as the vice chair of the ACCP Resident Advisory Committee (RAC), where she helped develop informational videos about ACCP and the RAC. Furthermore, she is actively involved in increasing both student and resident involvement in the Clinical Administration PRN, career roundtables, and premeeting symposium at the ACCP Annual Meeting. Malm is still a new practitioner, but “ACCP has already established a permanent place in [my] professional life and [I look] forward to contributing to the College even more in the future.”

Malm believes that the most underserved patients in the United States are those with a language barrier. Through her work with underserved populations in Connecticut, she has been inspired to learn Spanish to help patients understand their own health and medications. She hopes to combine her love of traveling and clinical pharmacy to help patients outside the United States.

Malm realized that she was meant for clinical pharmacy and that she truly loved her job when she was told “I don’t know what we would have done without a pharmacist here.” This statement provides her with enough fuel to get through all of the tough days and continue learning and growing as a practitioner. Malm advises new practitioners to always say yes at the beginning of their career. She feels passionately that because there are so many different career paths in pharmacy, you owe it to yourself to try everything. She understands that taking on many different projects may stretch you a little thin but believes that you should push yourself to your limits to see what you can handle.

July 2015

Alexandre Chan, Pharm.D., MPH, FCCP, BCPS, BCOP, is assistant head and associate professor at the Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Science at National University of Singapore (NUS). He is also jointly appointed as an associate professor at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore and adjunct faculty at the University of California, San Francisco School of Pharmacy and University of the Pacific Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. Chan earned his Pharm.D. degree from Rutgers University Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy and his M.S. degree in public health from National University of Singapore. He completed a pharmacy practice residency (PGY1) at the University of California, San Francisco School of Pharmacy and an oncology specialty residency (PGY2) at the University of California, Davis Medical Center. Currently, he is dually board certified in pharmacotherapy and oncology pharmacy.

Chan moved to Singapore to begin his academic career in 2006, where he established a clinical pharmacy service with the lymphoma and sarcoma team at the National Cancer Center in Singapore. Through his clinical service, Chan has been providing direct patient care and drug optimization to patients with cancer, ensuring drug efficacy and safety. Today, Chan’s clinical service also provides experiential learning opportunities for pharmacy students and residents in Singapore and different parts of the world. As a strong advocate of clinical pharmacy education, Chan has cowritten several textbook chapters, including the lymphoma chapter in Pharmacotherapy: A Pathophysiologic Approach. He is also a program director for the National Oncology Pharmacy Residency Program in Singapore.

As a clinician-scientist, Chan is heavily involved in cancer research. He has great interest in cancer supportive care with an emphasis on understanding the biological mechanisms, clinical prediction, and management strategies of chemotherapy-induced and cancer-related toxicities in patients with cancer and survivors. He also has a strong interest in cancer pharmacoepidemiology, medication safety in oncology, and clinical pharmacy education. Chan has published more than 110 full-length peer-reviewed manuscripts in a wide array of cancer supportive care topics, including chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, myelosuppression, cognitive impairment, dermatological toxicities, and cancer-related fatigue. Chan supervises Ph.D. students and fellows, and his research program has attracted more than $1.7 million in funding support from numerous agencies and pharmaceutical companies at the national and international level. Chan was the recipient of the Young Scientist Award from National University of Singapore in 2013 and was elected as an American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) Fellow in 2014.

Chan has served as a leader in various regional, national, and international organizations. He has served on many committees and task forces with ACCP, as well as organized numerous conferences and workshops in Asia to advocate for ACCP. With the International Society of Oncology Pharmacy Practitioners (ISOPP), he has served as a chair for the education committee, as well as the scientific co-chair for the 2014 and 2016 biannual meetings. Chan is also an associate editor for the Journal of Oncology Pharmacy Practice, the official journal for ISOPP. He is currently serving his second term as a board member with the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC) while also chairing the neurotoxicity study group and membership committee. Chan has served on numerous guideline panels for MASCC, including two clinical management guidelines for dermatological toxicities associated with EGFR inhibitors and radiation dermatitis. Chan has also served in various capacities for other organizations, including the Asian Conference on Clinical Pharmacy and the Ministry of Health, Singapore.

Chan firmly believes that his mentors have influenced and inspired him greatly throughout his career. These individuals include Drs. Jacky Olin, Robert Ignoffo, Andrea Iannucci, Jeanne Reede, William Dager, William Kehoe, and Gary Yee. He is very grateful for their valuable guidance, both personally and professionally. He has also learned the meaning of mentorship from them, and he hopes to follow their footsteps to provide great mentorship to his trainees and students.

Chan encourages everyone to be adventurous and not fearful of changes and challenges. He could have taken a safe and conservative route to develop his career in the United States. Instead, he made a bold, yet conscious, decision to move to Singapore to develop his academic career. He saw great opportunities, and he was determined to expand the presence of clinical pharmacy in Asia. Today, Chan is a leader in pioneering clinical pharmacy practice, research, and education in Asia. He is grateful to have met many wonderful colleagues in Singapore and Asia who share his vision. Chan believes that his career successes to date would not have been possible without these colleagues. He urges everyone to cultivate a broader mindset, step out of his or her comfort zone, and embrace the challenges lying ahead.

Chan’s favorite quotation is, “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” He is a firm believer that we must be passionate and enthusiastic about what we do, and it is important that we continue to network and surround ourselves with like-minded individuals. Chan believes that ACCP has given him many wonderful opportunities. He strongly encourages everyone to stay active within ACCP and to find his or her niche within this excellent organization.

May 2015

Jonathan Bain, Pharm.D., BCPS, is a critical care pharmacy specialist at the Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. He began his college career at the University of Tennessee at Martin, where he received a B.S. degree in chemistry. Shadowing experiences during this time sparked his interest in critical care clinical pharmacy, leading him to apply to the University of Tennessee in Memphis, where he completed a Pharm.D. degree. He continued his clinical training by completing a PGY1 pharmacy practice residency at Moses H. Cone Hospital and subsequently a PGY2 critical care residency at the University of Kentucky. On completion of his second residency, he briefly remained on staff at the University of Kentucky as a cardiothoracic surgery/cardiovascular critical care pharmacist, where he was also involved in student and resident rotations, research projects, and therapeutic lectures at the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy.

In his current role, Bain’s patient care responsibilities include daily rounding on several intensive care units, including neurosurgery, medicine, cardiology, trauma, general surgery, and cardiothoracic surgery; sedation, delirium, and analgesia patient rounds; medication therapy management; management of critical bleeding; and medical emergency “code” and stroke responses. Bain is also involved administratively in the implementation of formulary management strategies through current protocol analysis or development and analysis of non-formulary requests. He provides pharmacotherapy education to the medical and surgical residents and is involved in several research projects with plans for publishing the results. Bain’s plans for the future include providing advanced practice experiences for students and residency rotations. He has an interest in anticoagulation and bleeding disorders that originated from his work at Moses Cone Hospital and the University of Kentucky. He cowrote a recent paper in the Journal of Thrombosis and Thrombolysis on the off-label use of recombinant activated factor VII for patients with critical bleeding.

Bain credits his early shadowing experience with showing him what a clinical pharmacist does in areas from nutritional support to critical care. As an undergraduate, he saw how critical care pharmacists had a high impact in the care of critically ill patients. Bain’s access to great mentors and his ability to complete his education at several institutions across the United States have enabled him to observe and incorporate different styles of practice and teaching into his current practice. Bain is inspired to become a better pharmacist and researcher, never to settle for the status quo, and to strive to be the same type of mentor to others as he experienced early in his career.

Bain joined ACCP as a student pharmacist. His mentors—G. Christopher Wood, Pharm.D., FCCP, BCPS-AQ ID; Bradley Boucher, Pharm.D., FCCP, FCCM; and P. David Rogers, Pharm.D., Ph.D.—were actively involved in the organization and influenced his decision to join ACCP. As a student, his work on the project “CAS5 is required for fluconazole tolerance in Candida albicans,” with Dr. Rogers received an ACCP Best Poster Award. He believes that ACCP has provided a venue for meeting clinical practitioners from across the United States and throughout the world, as well as a great way to stay in touch with colleagues. ACCP has been essential to his growth as a practitioner through participation in its meetings, committee work, and publications. Bain has been an active member of the Critical Care PRN and has served on the PRN’s program and communications committees. He has also served on ACCP’s Organizational Affairs Committee and looks forward to becoming more involved in the College.

Bain’s advice to others is to surround yourselves with great practitioners and people. He credits his success to being fortunate to have been surrounded by many hard-working, selfless people who always push themselves to be great. He finds this attitude contagious, and it serves as one of the driving forces that influence his teaching, research, and clinical activities.

March 2015

Dr. Drayton Hammond is a clinical assistant professor of pharmacy practice at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Pharmacy in Little Rock, Arkansas. He practices as a clinical pharmacy specialist in the medical intensive care unit (MICU) at the UAMS Medical Center. He attended the South Carolina College of Pharmacy at the Medical University of South Carolina campus and The Citadel Military College Graduate School of Business, where he received his Pharm.D. and MBA degrees. After graduation, he completed a PGY1 pharmacy residency with Georgia Regents Medical Center and the University of Georgia College of Pharmacy and a PGY2 critical care pharmacy residency with University of Florida Health Jacksonville and the University of Florida College of Pharmacy. Currently, he is enrolled in classes to complete an M.S. degree at UAMS. He is a board-certified pharmacotherapy specialist and plans to sit for the critical care certification exam later this year.

In his current position, Hammond teaches the required didactic curriculum for the College of Pharmacy and Physician Assistant programs at UAMS. In addition, he facilitates a problem-based learning elective in critical care and coordinates an elective for preparing students to pursue postgraduate training. Through his role as an MICU clinical pharmacy specialist, he provides patient care as a member of a rounding interdisciplinary team and participates in a monthly lecture series for the medical residents. He precepts pharmacy students and residents and serves as a mentor for the statewide UAMS Teaching Certificate Program. He is actively involved in investigator-initiated educational and clinical research studies as a team member alongside other practitioners and learners in pharmacy and medicine at UAMS and other institutions.

Hammond credits his success up to this point in both his personal and his professional life to God above all else. God’s plan has been infinitely better than anything he might have envisioned. Hammond is eternally thankful to his family and friends and will never be able to repay the kindness and support shown to him by Joseph DiPiro and his PGY1 Residency Program Director Marjorie Shaw Phillips. He is indebted to them for their gratitude and belief in him.

Hammond believes he found his ideal position as a faculty member and clinical pharmacy specialist. Ever since he was young, he has always had a desire to help and serve others. After discussing the profession with a cousin who is a pharmacist, he knew that he had found a perfect fit. He feels blessed to help educate future pharmacists and provide care for critically ill patients. Hammond offers this advice:

People will not care how much you know until they know how much you care. In interactions with patients, practitioners and learners, a compassionate and sincere effort to help is one of the most impactful and memorable actions a person can offer to another. Find your passions in your personal and professional lives and chase after them with a fervor that will make others turn their heads and take notice. To quote Leo Babauta, “Instead of focusing on how much you can accomplish, focus on how much you can absolutely love what you’re doing.”

January 2015

Dr. Michael Gillette is a clinical pharmacy specialist in cardiology at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston, Texas. Many people and moments in his life have influenced his career in numerous ways, but his brother first introduced the profession of pharmacy to him, and his undergraduate chemistry professors were also instrumental in supporting and preparing him for pharmacy school. He attended Nova Southeastern University College of Pharmacy, where many faculty and preceptors helped him grow professionally and encouraged him to consider pursuing residency training. After graduation, he first gained valuable experience working as a clinical/staff pharmacist for 2 years in the VA setting before completing an accredited PGY1 pharmacy practice residency with an emphasis in acute care and a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship in cardiology at the North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System. He is a recent graduate of the ACCP Research and Scholarship Academy and is board certified in both pharmacotherapy and ambulatory care pharmacy.

In his current role, his patient care responsibilities include rounding as a member of the interdisciplinary team in the cardiac care unit and on the inpatient cardiology consult team. He also manages a pharmacist-run heart failure clinic once a week and precepts pharmacy students and residents. Gillette’s interests lie in providing optimal patient care as well as conducting research related to the use of pharmacotherapy for treating various cardiovascular diseases. His administrative responsibilities include being a member of the hospital’s critical care committee and assisting with the development and implementation of protocols related to cardiovascular pharmacotherapy. In addition, he participates in investigator-initiated research projects and collaborates with other providers in clinical trials.

Gillette enjoys the daily challenges of being a clinical pharmacy practitioner, and he chose this as a career path because it gave him the ability to directly and positively influence patient care. Some sage advice he would offer to future clinical pharmacists is to always take advantage of every opportunity and experience to grow and evolve. He notes that while in school, he never thought he would eventually be practicing in cardiology, and although concepts didn’t make sense in school, he was fortunate to have the opportunity after graduating to practice under clinical pharmacists and physicians who were able to fill in the missing gaps in an area that was so perplexing at first but then just fell into place. He commented, “Sometimes, you learn from the positive experiences and sometimes the negative, but the great thing is that you learn. Take the opportunity to look back on your mistakes and self-reflect so that you don’t repeat them.” One thing that has helped him significantly is his experience in networking with others to seek advice, ideas, and even encouragement when necessary. “A good mentor,” he recounts, “is certainly worth his/her weight in gold. Work hard in all that you do; nothing good ever came to those who didn’t put forth the effort or ever try.” Finally, he advises hopeful clinical pharmacists to find an area within pharmacy that is enjoyable because, as he says, “you’ll be doing it for a long time and you’ll be successful at doing things that you enjoy. Most of all, great things happen as a generous response to prayer.”

Gillette also credits a few others as helpful influences: the numerous patients he has encountered, who have given him necessary experience and both positive and negative feedback; his family and friends, who have been a longitudinal cord of support; and lastly, God, who has graciously coordinated everything that has led him to where he is today.

November 2014

Mr. Tyler Vest is currently a third-year pharmacy student at the University of Cincinnati (UC) James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy who is expected to graduate in May 2016. Before matriculating into the Pharm.D. program at UC, he completed undergraduate coursework at the University of Kentucky (UK). During his time at UK, he developed a passion for clinical pharmacy and research. Vest engaged in research in a pharmaceutical sciences laboratory at the UK College of Pharmacy that seeks to personalize lung cancer therapy by looking at the genomic content of lung cancer DNA. The laboratory’s principal investigator, Dr. E. Penni Black, strengthened Vest’s interest in clinical pharmacy and research and began to help him hone the skills that would be necessary for further education and training.

Vest works as an inpatient pharmacy intern at the Cleveland Clinic. As part of his internship, he completed two 12-week components focused on clinical pharmacy and operations during the summer months after his first and second year. Through this opportunity, he has learned the importance of clinical pharmacy; moreover, he has been exposed to day-to-day pharmacy operations. This experience has allowed him to participate in two clinical research projects: re-dispensing from the institution’s pediatric pharmacy satellite and reviewing initial antimicrobial doses in patients on CVVHD (continuous veno-venous hemodialysis).

Vest’s exposure to clinical pharmacy ultimately led him to apply to pharmacy school to pursue clinical pharmacy further. One day, he hopes to be a clinical pharmacist in an inpatient setting. Through his research projects, and listening to clinical pharmacists talk about their careers at UK, he became intrigued by clinical pharmacy and began to understood the importance of pharmacist involvement in patient care as experts in drug therapy. He wants to be involved in direct patient care and to be doing what is necessary to care for his patients. Although he is currently considering all the many paths available within clinical pharmacy, he is most interested in pursuing oncology.

Vest joined ACCP during his first pharmacy year and shortly thereafter served as an ACCP College of Pharmacy Student Liaison. With the help of his classmates, he also established the local ACCP Student Chapter at UC. He is actively involved with the state’s ACCP affiliate, the Ohio College of Clinical Pharmacy. He currently serves on the ACCP National Student Network Advisory Committee as vice chair and will assume the role of chair next year. This experience has been an incredible opportunity for him. He is very enthusiastic about helping to shape and contribute to the career paths of students aspiring to be clinical pharmacists during their earliest stage of career development. Having attended the past two ACCP Annual Meetings, Vest thoroughly enjoyed all the programming therein. ACCP has opened doors for him that he never thought were there.

One of Vest’s life goals is to complete postgraduate training. He hopes to complete a PGY1 and then perhaps pursue a PGY2 in oncology. His initial oncology exposure was during his time at UK, and his experiences since then have strengthened his interest in oncology. By completing this short-term goal, Vest hopes to make progress toward his long-term goal of being involved in direct patient care and managing his patients’ medication therapy.

September 2014

Amy Barton Pai, Pharm.D., FCCP, FASN, BCPS, is an associate professor of pharmacy practice at Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (ACPHS). She earned her B.S. degree in pharmacy from Albany College of Pharmacy in 1996. She then completed a pharmacy practice residency at St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany, New York, and received her Pharm.D. degree at Albany College of Pharmacy in 1999. From 1999 to 2001, she was a nephrology research fellow at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Then, from 2001 to 2008, Dr. Barton Pai was an associate professor at the University of New Mexico College of Pharmacy and School of Medicine.

Dr. Barton Pai is director of the ANephRx Core Laboratory. Her clinical and translational research program focuses on oxidative stress and inflammation in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Her laboratory conducts in vivo and in vitro investigations of the effects intravenous iron compounds, vitamin D, and other pharmaceuticals on cytokine activation, reactive oxygen species formation, and lipid peroxidation to better understand the potential effects of the agents on inflammation and cardiovascular disease in patients with kidney disease. Her other research interests include pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism in CKD, effects of iron on gram-positive organism growth and infection, and outcomes related to clinical pharmacy interventions in patients with CKD. Dr. Barton Pai has received grant support from the PhRMA (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America) Foundation and the Dialysis Clinic, Inc.; investigator-initiated contracts from the pharmaceutical industry; and federal funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Dr. Barton Pai’s practice for the past 15 years has been in the ambulatory hemodialysis setting. In 2002, she initiated the Clinical Pharmacy Research Training Program to provide longitudinal training for aspiring clinical pharmacy scientists. She actively mentors residents, fellows, and pharmacy students in a nephrology-focused elective rotation and an APPE (advanced pharmacy practice experience). She serves as a co-adviser for the Student College of Clinical Pharmacy Chapter (SCCP), which was recognized as the student organization of the year at ACPHS in 2014. SCCP at ACPHS provides cardiovascular and kidney screenings in the Capital Region of upstate New York in partnership with the Northeast Kidney Foundation.

Dr. Barton Pai first became interested in research during the fourth year of her B.S. degree program in pharmacy. The dean offered to send students to Cornell Medical College in New York City to work in the pharmacology laboratory. During that time, she spent 6 weeks working with various laboratory techniques in both in vitro and animal models. On the last day of the experience, she went on rounds with a clinical pharmacologist who used his research experience in hepatic enzyme activity to modulate a patient’s chemotherapy regimen. After that, she knew she wanted to be a clinical and translational scientist. She chose the subspecialty of nephrology because of the “complexity of the biochemical milieu in patients with chronic kidney disease and how that may affect response to drug therapy.”

Dr. Barton Pai is a Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist and a Fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy and the American Society of Nephrology. She serves on several national committees, including the American Society of Nephrology Dialysis Advisory Group and the NIH National Kidney Disease Education Program (NKDEP) Coordinating Committee, and she serves as chair of the Pharmacy Work Group for NKDEP. She is serving on the Programming Committee for the National Kidney Foundation for 2015. Dr. Barton Pai finds her work with these professional organizations rewarding and has experienced many benefits through her ACCP membership. ACCP and the Nephrology PRN have been instrumental in providing grant funding, mentorship, and networking opportunities for her career. She also states, “The intimacy of ACCP meetings compared to other pharmacy meetings and the growth of student programming has made the student ACCP experience invaluable. As an adviser, I always recommend that students attend ACCP first if they are planning on pursuing post-doctoral experiences.”

Although Dr. Barton Pai remains very busy with professional organizations, research, and the mentoring of aspiring pharmacists and researchers, she also has many interests outside her career. One especially interesting example is Dr. Barton Pai’s passion for ballet. She takes six to eight classes per week and tries to attend as many New York City Ballet performances as possible.

July 2014

Dr. Richard Parrish is a clinical practice leader for surgery and pediatric pharmacy with Alberta Health Services (AHS) in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and practices at Royal Alexandra Hospital. Dr. Parrish completed his B.S. degree in pharmacy general practice at The Ohio State University in 1980, his M.S. degree at Auburn University in 1985, and his Ph.D. degree in social, administrative, and clinical pharmacy at the University of Minnesota in 2000. His dissertation on early 20th-century interprofessional negotiation of drug standards was published as a book, the first in the program’s 40-year history. He is a Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist (BCPS). As the former chief pharmacist at five U.S. hospitals of various bed sizes and scope, Dr. Parrish has led the implementation of significant medication safety improvements in CPOE (computerized physician order entry) systems in both adult and pediatric health systems.

In his current practice, Dr. Parrish serves as a provincial pharmacy representative to AHS’s Surgery Strategic Clinical Network (SCN) Core Committee and as an ERAS (Enhanced Recovery After Surgery) Steering Committee member for the Diabetes, Obesity, and Nutrition SCN. He is also a member of the AHS Pediatric Advisory Committee.

Dr. Parrish was elected as an ACCP Fellow in 2013. Since election to ACCP membership in 2001, he has served on numerous task forces and committees, both as member and chair. Moreover, he has been a member of ACCP’s Research Institute’s Practice-Based Research Network Community Advisory Panel since 2012. From 2010 to 2012, Dr. Parrish served the Pediatrics PRN as chair of the Collaboration Committee, which published a joint opinion with the Pediatric Pharmacy Advocacy Group (PPAG) in both Pharmacotherapy and the Journal of Pediatric Pharmacology and Therapeutics on a pediatric patient’s need for a clinical pharmacist. He was the founding president for DC-CCP (District of Columbia College of Clinical Pharmacy), an ACCP chapter. In addition to his service to ACCP, he is an active member of PPAG and SIDP (Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists) and was recently invited as a participant in the Alberta College of Pharmacists Inaugural Leadership Forum.

Dr. Parrish values ACCP because of the educational resources and networking opportunities it has provided to him through the years. The College leadership inspired him to contribute his time, talent, and treasure. He would like to offer his gratitude to the College leadership, most notably Mary Beth O’Connell, Gary Matzke, Dawn Havrda, Milap Nahata, Don McLeod, and the late Darwin Zaske, for “their penetrating vision, timely mentoring, and sparkling collegiality along my wayfare.”

Advice Dr. Parrish offers to the College is to “define, or be defined!” In addition, he recommends three professional precepts: being goal directed, building new relationships, and maintaining and expanding old relationships. He enacts these precepts each day by setting the following goals: learn and use the names of three new people, and express appreciation and affection to three friends. These goals have guided his practice for more than 35 years. You may be surprised to learn that, partly to honor the birth of his three sons and his professional upbringing in Roman Catholic health systems, Dr. Parrish chose to be a Catholic and is a trained liturgical cantor who ministered to parishes in State College, Pennsylvania, and Wayzata, Minnesota, for almost 10 years in the 1990s.

March 2014

Emily Benefield, Pharm.D., BCPS, an alumna of Washington State University, is the PGY1 residency site coordinator and advanced clinical pharmacist in the pediatric/cardiac intensive care units (PICUs/CICUs) at Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. Dr. Benefield was introduced to clinical pharmacy while shadowing at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital (YVMH) during her senior year of high school. This was the first of her many interactions with Dr. Dennis Hoover, the director of pharmacy, and Dr. Carol Vanevenhoven, a junior clinical pharmacist. At YVMH, Drs. Hoover and Vanevenhoven taught her that the practice of clinical pharmacy uses high-level math and science skills in the provision of patient care. Two years after that initial meeting, Dr. Benefield was hired as an intern at YVMH, thus beginning her path to becoming a clinical pharmacist. Over this period, Dr. Benefield was taught the basics of pharmacy, which grew into clinical abilities, thanks to the clinical pharmacy mentors at YVMH and her exposure to the residency program there. Moreover, although Dr. Benefield knew her career path would lead her to postgraduate training before becoming a clinical pharmacist, she had no idea this path would eventually lead her to pediatrics.

Dr. Benefield was drawn to pediatrics because of her lack of confidence and knowledge in the specialty. Hence, to better herself, she sought out every advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) in pediatrics available so that she could learn more about pediatric disease states and their relationship to pharmacotherapy. Because of the paucity of data for most pediatric drug treatments, the pediatric clinical pharmacist as the drug therapy expert is an integral member of the interdisciplinary health care team.

After graduating with a Pharm.D. degree from the University of Oklahoma College of Pharmacy, Dr. Benefield began her PGY1 training at the under the direction of Winter Smith, Pharm.D., BCPS. During her first year there, Dr. Benefield found her love and passion for pediatric pharmacotherapy. This led her to further pursue a PGY2 pediatric pharmacy residency with Tracy Hagemann, Pharm.D., FCCP, FPPAG, also at the University of Oklahoma.

After completing her residency, Dr. Benefield began her career as a clinical pharmacist at Intermountain Healthcare - Primary Children’s Hospital, a 289-bed freestanding pediatric referral center for Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Nevada. Serving such a large geographic area, Primary Children’s Hospital has a high-acuity patient population, adding to the excitement of working in the pediatric referral center. Dr. Benefield participates in daily multidisciplinary rounds with faculty and residents in the University of Utah Department of Pediatrics, attends all respiratory and cardiac resuscitations, contributes to trauma stabilizations, and provides support for ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) cannulations on the PICU and CICU teams. She works with an accomplished team of pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, respiratory therapists, dietitians, and critical care technicians to provide the best possible care to the children of the Intermountain West.

Dr. Benefield became the residency site coordinator for the PGY1 pharmacy residency at Primary Children’s Hospital about 2 years ago. Primary Children’s has 3 of the 10 PGY1 pharmacy residents within the four sites of the Intermountain Healthcare residency program, all of whom have opportunities to participate in elective learning experiences at the pediatric facility. She also serves as a preceptor for the PICU learning experience offered to APPE students and PGY1 and PGY2 residents in the Salt Lake City area. Dr. Benefield finds daily fulfillment in the challenges of training the up-and-coming minds of pediatric clinical pharmacy.

One of most important mentors in Dr. Benefield’s career is Dr. Tracy Hagemann, former PGY2 pediatric residency director at the University of Oklahoma College of Pharmacy. Dr. Hagemann is not only a great professional example, but she also truly focuses on Dr. Benefield’s overall development. Dr. Benefield is very grateful for Dr. Hagemann’s understanding of the importance of having balance in life. Indeed, only with this guidance was Dr. Benefield able to make some professional sacrifices to move to Utah for the love of family and the outdoor things she loves, such as running, hiking, and snowboarding. Dr. Benefield has no regrets about the decision, as she has been able to mold her position to include leadership, clinical, and research opportunities while serving as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Utah College of Pharmacy. With the support of the pediatric pharmacy faculty at the University of Oklahoma, Dr. Benefield has been able to go much farther than she ever imagined in her early years as a practitioner. Although it isn’t easy to find a work-life balance, Dr. Benefield recommends that young practitioners take the time to find the right personal balance for themselves.

March 2014

Dr. Nicole Olson is a clinical pharmacy specialist – patient aligned care team (PACT) at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in Tomah, Wisconsin. She earned her Pharm.D. degree from the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy. In 2011, she completed a PGY1 Pharmacy Residency at the VAMC in West Palm Beach, Florida. She is a Board Certified Ambulatory Care Pharmacist who focuses on primary care.

Dr. Olson primarily works in a primary care clinic treating veterans with diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, heart failure, tobacco cessation, asthma, and COPD. She also works ½ day each week in the anticoagulation clinic. In between seeing patients, Dr. Olson reviews nonformulary requests and answers many drug-related information questions for providers and other health care workers with whom she works closely. In addition, she is the provider for two shared medical appointments—one for diabetes and the other for heart failure.

When Dr. Olson began pharmacy school, she did not anticipate pursuing a clinical pharmacy career. Her clinical interests grew each year of school until she experienced her fourth-year rotations, when she realized she wanted to pursue a residency so that she might train to become a clinical pharmacist. Through her fourth-year rotations, she discovered her pharmacy niche in ambulatory care while on rotation at a cardiology clinic at the West Palm Beach VAMC. She is passionate about ambulatory care because she enjoys seeing patients, establishing the provider/patient relationship, and adjusting patients’ medications. Dr. Olson considers helping patients to medically improve the most rewarding aspect of her pharmacy career. She also enjoys being the primary medication resource for provider questions. She enjoys the challenges a career in clinical pharmacy brings, noting that it forces her “to stay on her toes” and keep up with the latest research and practice guidelines. For these reasons, she pursued an ambulatory care clinical pharmacy position at the VAMC in Tomah, Wisconsin, after her residency.

Although Dr. Olson gives credit to all of the preceptors from her residency for influencing her career and shaping her to be the clinical pharmacist she is today, one preceptor in particular had the biggest impact on her career: Dr. David Parra. Not only was Dr. Parra one of her residency preceptors, but he was also the preceptor for the rotation she had as a student that made her choose to pursue ambulatory care pharmacy. He pushed Dr. Olson and challenged her to be the best pharmacist that she could be. She feels that Dr. Parra went out of his way to help her succeed. He taught her how to be a good clinical pharmacist, the importance of work-life balance, and how to make work challenging, rewarding, and fun. Although she is now hundreds of miles away, Dr. Parra continues to help her and provide guidance when needed. Dr. Olson considers Dr. Parra an exceptional preceptor, mentor, and teacher.

Because preceptors have had such an impact on Dr. Olson’s career, she intends to be a preceptor for students and residents. Having had great mentors and preceptors as a student and resident, she knows the value of training the future of clinical pharmacy. She intends to make the aspiring pharmacists better pharmacists, just as her preceptors did for her.

January 2014

Dr. Amber Castle started her career as a pharmacy technician at a Stop & Shop pharmacy when she was 16 years old. For the first time, she understood that pharmacists did much more than manage the inventory. She admired their compassion and the strong personal relationships they built with their clients. It was then that she decided to pursue pharmacy as a career. After starting college at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, Rhode Island, Castle learned that pharmacists had many roles outside retail pharmacies. She spent a summer volunteering at Yale-New Haven Hospital (YNHH) in New Haven, Connecticut. During that time, she had the opportunity to shadow Bryan Polsonetti, a clinical pharmacist, in the surgical ICU. She saw patients, discussed their care as an equal member of the medical team, and was able to make real-time interventions before a prescription was ever written. That was when she knew she wanted to be a pharmacist specializing in the care of the critically ill. In 2007, Castle graduated magna cum laude with a Pharm.D. degree and a certificate in French and pharmacy. She worked as a pharmacy intern at YNHH most weekends throughout college and went on to complete a PGY1 pharmacy practice residency. She finished her training at just the right time and was able to immediately transition into her current position as the neuroscience ICU (NeuroICU) pharmacist.

As the NeuroICU clinical specialist, Castle is responsible for epilepsy, neurology, and neurosurgery services. She has found the neuroscience pharmacy community welcoming, vibrant, and dynamic. She believes neuroscience really stands out as a field in which pharmacists are exceptionally well represented at the highest levels of leadership. Gretchen Brophy, Theresa Murphy-Human, and Denise Rhoney are mentors and role models who have inspired Castle to get involved with collaborative, multicenter research and interdisciplinary education. It is truly an exciting time to practice in neuroscience. Today, Castle wears many hats in addition to her primary role. As the lead ICU pharmacist, she helps coordinate policy and other initiatives across the ICUs. As a part-time lecturer in the Yale School of Nursing nurse practitioner program, she coordinates two pharmacology courses. As the director of the PGY2 critical care pharmacy residency program, she is responsible for the recruitment and training of two residents.

Castle is also proud to be a member of the Connecticut 1 (CT-1) disaster medical assistance team. The CT-1 team was deployed to New York during Hurricane Sandy in 2012; however, she was sent to join the Tennessee 1 (TN-1) team in New Jersey, which needed an additional pharmacist. These teams were among the first of many in the United States to respond to the disaster. Castle found it a challenge not knowing where she would be located or exactly what to expect,…and it was a little scary driving through a hurricane! However, thanks to the amazing TN-1 team led by Team Commander Teddy Rogers, the team was able to quickly set up a functional base of operations and start seeing patients immediately after the storm. The pharmacy team, Roberta Keeton, Stephen Wickizer, and Patricia Wilcox, led by the multitalented Glenn Susskind, successfully operated a pharmacy out of a tent on the Rutgers campus and then out of the back of a truck at a convention center in Atlantic City, New Jersey, for 2 weeks. While there, the team assisted with therapeutic interchange, drug information, drug selection and dosing, and inventory management. YNHH and the pharmacy department management team fully supported this humanitarian mission.

Castle is grateful for the many opportunities she has had over the years. She feels privileged to be part of an amazing department of talented, dedicated, and incredibly intelligent pharmacists at YNHH. One of the best parts of her job is the opportunity to work with students and residents. Their energy and enthusiasm is contagious and pushes her to do more and learn more. She is thankful for her mentors, especially Jim Sarigianis, Eric Tichy, Marina Yazdi, and Lori Lee, for all of their encouragement and support.

November 2013

Ms. Cedona Watts is currently a fourth-year student pharmacist at the University of Southern California (USC) School of Pharmacy and is expected to graduate in May 2014. She recently completed her first advanced pharmacy practice experience in ambulatory care, during which she gained experience managing patients with cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and HIV. She is also an intern pharmacist at City of Hope, a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated comprehensive cancer center. Last summer, Watts completed a 10-week research internship at the NCI, part of the National Institutes of Health, where she assisted in developing an assay to detect endocrine-disrupting chemicals in water sources. At USC, Watts was the recipient of two research scholarships to study the use of CXCR1/2 antagonists in the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer. Before joining USC, Watts earned a B.S. degree in biological sciences with a minor in chemistry and a B.A. degree in philosophy from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Watts applied to pharmacy school to become a clinical pharmacist, and her goal is to become a faculty member. She was intrigued by clinical pharmacy after shadowing a clinical pharmacist. This experience provided her the opportunity to learn about the role of clinical pharmacists in recommending appropriate drug therapy and precepting students and residents as part of a multidisciplinary health care team. Although she is aware of the many areas of pharmacy practice, she is particularly interested in learning more about oncology. Watts’ career choices were influenced the most by the faculty at USC and the pharmacists at City of Hope—experts in their respective fields and leaders in the pharmacy profession. Her experience in research helped her understand the basic science behind therapeutics, and her experience in cardiology led her to realize the importance of looking at the patient as a whole before making clinical decisions.

Watts joined ACCP during her second year of pharmacy school and attended “Emerge from the Crowd: How to Become a Standout Residency Candidate” at the ACCP spring meeting in Reno, Nevada. Her favorite part of the conference was the workshop in which she learned the importance of scholarly activities and the ways in which students can get involved during pharmacy school. She also participated in the online CV review service, from which she learned great tips for improving her CV. This year, Watts is excited to serve on the ACCP National Student Network Advisory Committee as a member-at-large.

Despite her busy schedule, Watts finds time for community service. She participates in organizing health fairs for the underserved patient population, where students not only screen for blood pressure, provide immunizations, and counsel patients, but also develop an appreciation for cultural competency. Watts is currently assisting in organizing a student conference for undergraduate, graduate, and professional students to promote diversity in higher education.

Finally, people would be surprised to know that Cedona Watts wanted to be a foreign correspondent before starting college!

September 2013

Dr. Jeremy Moretz is currently a PGY2 cardiology pharmacy resident at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. In May 2008, Dr. Moretz received his undergraduate degree in religious studies: history and thought at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, North Carolina, and in May 2012, received his Pharm.D. degree from the University of North Carolina (UNC) Eshelman School of Pharmacy. After completing his PGY1 pharmacy practice residency at Vanderbilt, he was selected to stay on as the university’s first PGY2 resident in cardiology, his current course of study. Dr. Moretz’s future career interests include pursuing a cardiovascular practice, obtaining an academic appointment at a college of pharmacy, and conducting research in heart failure. Throughout his pharmacy studies and residency training, he has maintained an active role in ACCP, serving as member-at-large in both the National Student Network and National Resident Advisory committees.

His interest in cardiology primarily stems from two highly influential life events. First, many years before considering a career in pharmacy, he watched as his grandfather suffered from heart failure, witnessing firsthand his grandfather’s day-to-day struggles with the burdens of his disease and the complexity of his medication regimen. After deciding to enter the profession, Dr. Moretz believed that it would be enriching to work with the cardiology patient population, both in educating them about their condition and in assisting them with optimizing their therapeutic regimen.

The second life event driving Dr. Moretz’s interest in cardiology originated in his own health problems. Having struggled with his weight for many years, he was given a diagnosis of hypertension at age 16 and placed on an aggressive antihypertensive regimen. When he was only 21 years old, he weighed 290 pounds. During his senior year of undergraduate study, he made a conscious decision to implement a complete lifestyle change. Over the next 6 years, he achieved a 115-pound weight loss and was eventually able to discontinue his antihypertensive therapy. He notes that it is incredibly rewarding to counsel patients who struggle with lifestyle modifications and to share with them his personal struggle, believing that, in so doing, he is able to give them a new perspective on weight loss. Implementation of weight loss is not (only) a factor in reality television shows but, with hard work and dedication, can also be accomplished by one’s own conscious choices and changes in lifestyle.

For Dr. Moretz, the greatest influence on his life is the exceptional mentorship he has been afforded during his studies at UNC and his pursuit of residency training at Vanderbilt. Time and again, he has been pushed to excel by his mentors. Moreover, countless preceptors and professors have shown him what it means to become a practicing pharmacy professional. Their demonstration of integrity and professional excellence, together with their commitment to the profession, lifelong academic pursuit, collegial relationship building, professional networking, and ability to maintain a healthy work-life balance, has been life-changing. According to Dr. Moretz, who has found the wisdom and guidance of his mentors, preceptors, and professors deeply influential, it is wise to learn from those who have walked a similar path before you. His appreciation to all who have served as mentors to him and as otherwise exemplars of scholarship at UNC and Vanderbilt is heartfelt.

Of note, Dr. Moretz is also an avid musician (both piano and guitar) who will be presiding over his oldest and best friend’s wedding as an ordained minister.

May 2013

Dr. Juliana Chan is a clinical associate professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) College of Pharmacy and in the College of Medicine in the sections of Digestive Diseases, Nutrition, and Hepatology. She earned her B.S. degree in pharmacy and her Pharm.D. degree from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy (MCP). She completed a Pharmacy Practice Residency (PGY1) and a Specialized Residency in Gastroenterology and Hepatology (PGY2) at the University of Michigan. She is a Board Certified Ambulatory Care Pharmacist who teaches and conducts research in gastroenterology and hepatology with a focus on viral hepatitis.

During the past decade, Dr. Chan had many opportunities to serve in several clinical capacities. In 2002, she established the first hepatitis C pharmacist-managed clinic at the University of Illinois Medical Center (UIMC) Outpatient Care Center, which was subsequently dedicated as the Bobbie and Marvin Fink Liver Clinic. She was the primary care provider for patients with hepatitis C when referred by the hepatologist to initiate hepatitis C therapy. Dr. Chan was responsible for all patient assessment and education, as well as for ordering and monitoring pertinent laboratory tests, providing therapy and dosage adjustments, and managing adverse drug effects associated with hepatitis C medications. The pharmaceutical care she provided allowed her to focus her efforts on maximizing the benefits of liver drug therapy, reducing complications and adverse effects, improving patient outcomes, and decreasing overall health care costs.

In 2007, Dr. Chan was named the assistant director of clinical pharmacy in ambulatory care at UIMC. Her clinical skills and expertise in creating the hepatitis C service revolutionized specialty pharmacy services at UIMC. Under her direction, rheumatology, neurology, and gastroenterology specialty pharmacy services were created, which mirrored and modeled the hepatology service she had established. In addition, during her tenure as assistant director, she focused her research efforts on pharmacy administration, including the management of Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS), quality improvement, and medication safety.

Because of Dr. Chan’s success in creating the pharmacist-managed hepatitis C clinic in early 2000, she was selected to spearhead the development of a novel telemedicine clinic at UIC. Established in 2010, the hepatitis C telemedicine program provides direct patient care to about 300 inmates with viral hepatitis within the Illinois Department of Corrections by video conferencing; Dr. Chan is currently the clinical pharmacist who oversees this program.

Dr. Chan has given many invited national and international presentations on gastrointestinal and liver topics, published her research in peer-reviewed professional and scientific journals, and written several book chapters. She has also presented many papers on pharmacy administration with a focus on REMS, specialty pharmacy services, and quality improvement initiatives involving the Joint Commission requirements; these presentations have occurred at the University HealthSystem Consortium, American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and ACCP.

Through the years, Dr. Chan’s career has been enriched with several challenges and successes. She states that two individuals were of great influence to her, responsible for getting her to where she is today. The first is Professor Marion Hoar, her pharmaceutics professor at MCP, who taught her that perseverance is the key to success. Dr. Chan fondly recalls days in the pharmaceutics lab, making suppositories during intensely hot summer months. She felt punished and wondered “why me?” of all students chosen to make suppositories, a “not-so-nice” dosage form to be compounded in 90-degree weather. Although Dr. Chan pled with Professor Hoar to assign another item to compound, she was unsuccessful. Professor Hoar kept telling her “to keep trying and do not give up so easily.” He always pushed students to their limits and never gave them an easy answer; instead, he encouraged and nurtured self-thinking, pushing his students out of their comfort zone. It certainly was a journey, going through the pharmaceutics course. Professor Hoar, however, taught her that determination and “giving it your all” would make everything worthwhile. Professor Hoar’s constant guidance afforded her many “aha” moments…including a successful outcome when congealing a suppository, even in the warm weather.

The other individual who molded Dr. Chan into who she is today is Dr. Rosemary R. Berardi, professor emeritus of pharmacy at the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy. During Dr. Chan’s PGY1 residency program in 1998, she was introduced to Dr. Berardi, who identified herself as the GI/liver clinical pharmacist who was encouraging/soliciting residents to be on her clinical service. Dr. Chan states that the first words of Dr. Berardi were, “If you want to learn and teach, then select my rotation,” and that afterward, the professor left her curriculum vitae (CV) on the table and exited the room. Dr. Chan was petrified as she thought, Who would be “crazy enough” to be a clinical pharmacist specializing in constipation and diarrhea? However, at the same time, she was intrigued as she perused Dr. Berardi’s unique CV and, without hesitation, selected her GI/liver rotation. Because this occurred during the first 2 months in the PGY1, Dr. Chan quickly realized that GI was more than bowel excretion. Dr. Berardi modeled the persona of an excellent clinician who treated every patient as though he or she were her own “mom or dad” and encouraged Dr. Chan to “always think outside the box!!!” Dr. Berardi’s mentorship solidified Dr. Chan’s desire to pursue a PGY2 residency in GI/liver under her guidance. Dr. Chan has no regrets about the day she was selected to develop her knowledge and skills under Dr. Berardi’s tutelage. She truly believes that many of her academic accomplishments were achieved through Dr. Berardi’s guidance, mentorship, and, most importantly, friendship, through the years. Dr. Chan readily credits Dr. Berardi with her contributions to pharmacy and for being the thought leader in the gastroenterology and hepatology pharmacy world; without her being the “mother” and “creator” of this unique and specialized area, many of us would not be where we are today.

Dr. Berardi introduced Dr. Chan to ACCP and the importance of committee work. Dr. Chan maintains that without Dr. Berardi, there would be no GI/Liver/Nutrition PRN today. Dr. Berardi established the ACCP GLN PRN and invited Dr. Chan to be one of the founding members in 1999. Since then, Dr. Chan has been actively involved in national organizations, devoting most of her time and energy to ACCP. Among her contributions to ACCP are serving as a reviewer for annual and spring meeting abstracts for ACCP, for Pharmacotherapy, and for the Pharmacotherapy Preparatory Review Course on Gastroenterology Disorders. For the Clinical Administration PRN, she has served as a co-chair on the Programming Committee and has established the Scholarship Committee. She was also selected to be the GLN PRN secretary/treasurer for 2012–2013. In addition, she has been invited to write the Viral Hepatitis section for the ACCP Pharmacotherapy Self-Assessment Program in the ACCP Ambulatory Care New Practitioner Survival Guide/Resource Manual and will be an item writer for the GI/liver content in the ACCP National Student Competition. Dr. Chan follows Dr. Berardi’s example and is giving back to students, residents, and junior faculty by participating as an ACCP CV reviewer, National Resident Advisory Committee mentor, and Teaching and Learning Academy mentor. She encourages all trainees to join ACCP early in their career, telling them that this organization will help them grow professionally.

Dr. Chan gives credit to ACCP and states, “Being a member has allowed me many opportunities never thought of more than a decade ago.” Dr. Chan believes her success in the practice of pharmacy is directly because of those who taught and mentored her when she was a student and resident. To be successful in the ever-evolving health care system, Dr. Chan advises students and residents to (1) seize every opportunity when it appears; (2) accept criticism to decrease your blind spots, even if not presented in a constructive way; and (3) never be afraid/reluctant to voice your thoughts and/or opinions because you never know. Dr. Chan’s motto is, “Ask and you may receive, give and you will receive.”

March 2013

Dr. Emily Hawes is a clinical pharmacist practitioner, a designation by the North Carolina Boards of Medicine and Pharmacy conferring approval to provide collaborative drug therapy management under the direction of a licensed physician. She serves in this capacity at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Family Medicine Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and she is currently a clinical assistant professor at the UNC School of Medicine. In 2006, Dr. Hawes earned her B.S. degree in education and, in 2010, her Pharm.D. degree, both from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. In 2011, she completed a PGY1 pharmacy practice residency and, the next year, completed a PGY2 pharmacotherapy residency—both earned at the University of North Carolina Hospitals and Clinics in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Dr. Hawes practices at the UNC Family Medicine Center, an ambulatory care site with a pharmacist-led pharmacotherapy clinic focusing on the management of chronic diseases such as anticoagulation, heart failure, hypertension, diabetes, asthma, chronic pain, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as well as medication reconciliation after hospital discharge during multidisciplinary visits. She also serves as a preceptor for pharmacy residents and students through the University of North Carolina Eshelman School of Pharmacy. She has the additional responsibilities of teaching Family Medicine medical residents, responding to drug information inquiries for the Family Medicine team, developing and evaluating medication-related policies and procedures, contributing to various quality improvement initiatives, and providing recommendations, counseling, and education to patients as needed. With respect to her research endeavors, Dr. Hawes was recently awarded a grant from the American College of Clinical Pharmacy for a prospective pharmacodynamic study evaluating peak and trough coagulation test results in patients taking therapeutic doses of rivaroxaban.

Dr. Hawes chose clinical pharmacy as a profession by seeking God’s particular place of service in her life. Throughout many years of living abroad and one experience after another, she felt her heart was turned to serve those who are physically hurting. One experience influencing her drive toward health care was during her visit to an isolated leper colony in northern India with her family. She met a woman in a mud hut whose hands were both covered in open sores and whose fingers had disintegrated; this woman suffered from leprosy. Without any fingers, she could only watch as her daughter cleaned the rice for supper. To move from place to place, she painfully shuffled her body along the dirt ground. The daughter explained that they been forced to abandon their old homes and permanently seclude themselves from the rest of society. She then asked, “But, Emily, have you come to help? Did you bring medicine? Can you cure my mother?” At this moment, Dr. Hawes realized she wanted to do more than just smile and empathize with others in agony. She wanted to provide a service to help physical suffering.

One of Dr. Hawes’ undergraduate professors encouraged her to explore the field of pharmacy. Positive experiences shadowing pharmacists inspired her to pursue this wonderful profession. During her first month of PGY1 residency while rotating with an exceptional pharmacist at UNC’s Family Medicine Center, she discovered the valuable role of a clinical pharmacist in the primary care setting. The passion to provide pharmacy services across diverse patient populations of all ages led her to pursue a PGY2 in pharmacotherapy, and she went on to serve as a pharmacist in the primary care setting at a great institution with extraordinary colleagues.

Dr. Hawes attributes mentorship as the single most important influence on her career. Several professors and preceptors at Samford and UNC significantly affected her professional development. This included contributing to her decision to pursue pharmacy, increasing her passion for the profession, and directing her to residency training, which led to a position in a primary care setting. The leadership of her mentors was exemplified in the ways they served, respected, listened, motivated, taught, and communicated to help learners realize their maximum potential. Leadership is all about influence and service through building relationships and taking the time to really learn about one’s background, goals, and motivations. Through the years, mentors have shown what it means to provide exceptional care to patients, continually self-evaluate, make evidence-based decisions, maintain a high standard of integrity and excellence, act professionally, serve selflessly, live in a balanced way, integrate with a multidisciplinary team, advocate for pharmacy, be a lifelong learner, count blessings, and accomplish responsibilities effectively and efficiently, among other traits. Even now, being mentored by outstanding pharmacists and other health care providers helps Dr. Hawes grow as a leader, practitioner, educator, and preceptor. It is out of gratitude for the many individuals who have invested in her that she is inspired to mentor others and help prepare the next generation of pharmacists.

People would be surprised to know that she met Princess Diana in Pakistan during elementary school, played the position of goalkeeper for her college soccer team, and went skydiving for her 1-year wedding anniversary.

January 2013

Marissa Escobar Quinones, Pharm.D., CDE, is a clinical pharmacy specialist in ambulatory care at Parkland in Dallas, Texas. She works at Southeast Dallas Health Center, which is one of Parkland’s Community-Oriented Primary Care Clinics. Dr. Quinones received her B.S. degree from Texas State University in May 2000 and her Pharm.D. degree from the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Pharmacy (TTUHSC SOP) in May 2004. She then completed both an American Society of Health-System Pharmacists–accredited pharmacy practice and ambulatory care specialty residency with the Veterans Affairs North Texas Medical Center and TTUHSC SOP in Dallas, Texas, from 2004 to 2006.

Dr. Quinones primarily works with indigent patients of Dallas County. She provides drug therapy management services, evaluates medication nonadherence, and assesses for polypharmacy in patients with diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, anticoagulation therapy, and heart failure by a collaborative practice agreement. Dr. Quinones has prescriptive authority in Texas as part of her collaborative practice agreement. Dr. Quinones is a Certified Diabetes Educator who serves as a diabetes instructor and assists with the coordination of the Parkland’s American Diabetes Association educational program, which was recognized as the Diabetes Site of the Year in 2011. She serves on Parkland’s Diabetes Advisory Council and was named as the Diabetes Educator of the year in 2011.

In addition to her direct patient care responsibilities, Dr. Quinones provides mentorship and clinical experiences to the Parkland pharmacy practice and ambulatory care pharmacy specialty residents. She is an adjunct faculty at TTUHSC SOP and preceptor-faculty for the University of Texas College of Pharmacy, where she precepts clerkship students. Dr. Quinones actively participates in various administrative duties within the pharmacy department to improve patient care in a cost-effective manner. She performs drug use evaluations, non-formulary medication reviews, drug information consults, and in-services to various disciplines. Her research focus is the impact of clinical pharmacy services on patient outcomes and cost avoidance.

Dr. Quinones believes that leadership is an important part of the clinical pharmacist’s role. She is an active member of ACCP and the Texas Society of Health-System Pharmacists. She has served as the chair for the Ambulatory Care and Endocrine and Metabolism PRNs of ACCP. Dr. Quinones has also served as the president and secretary for the Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) local chapter of the ACCP. Dr. Quinones has presented various posters at ACCP highlighting the work of the Endocrine and Ambulatory Care PRNs. She recently presented a collaborative research project highlighting the impact of clinical pharmacy services on diabetic outcomes and cost avoidance at Parkland at the 2012 ACCP Annual Meeting in Hollywood, Florida.

Dr. Quinones was introduced to clinical pharmacy services while on rotations as a third-year pharmacy student at TTUHSC SOP. She worked with Dr. Krystal Edwards, who provided services to indigent patients with diabetes, many of whom were Spanish speaking or had comorbidities. She recalls a particular Spanish-speaking patient who required insulin adjustments and was having major health problems when he presented at his initial visit for diabetes management. Dr. Edwards assigned this patient to her, and each week, the patient was contacted by telephone to review his glucose levels, answer questions, and make recommendations under the faculty’s supervision. The improvements the patient made with the clinical pharmacist were amazing as the rotation progressed. Through this rotation, she became interested in learning more about clinical pharmacy as a career. She learned clinical pharmacists are instrumental as part of the health care team. This experience taught her the value of a clinical pharmacist in improving the health of patients. During her fourth year, she decided to pursue a pharmacy practice residency, which is when she realized she enjoyed ambulatory care pharmacy. This, in turn, led her to pursue an ambulatory care specialty residency. She is thankful for her mentors and the experiences she has encountered, having made her the practitioner she is today.

To this day, she continues to spend most of her time at her practice site, educating patients and managing their medical conditions. She is passionate about serving and educating patients. Many patients do not know about their disease and the importance of medication adherence. Dr. Quinones believes that being passionate about patient care is an important part of being a clinical pharmacist because they are an integral part of the care patients receive. She enjoys helping patients because many need health care services, given that they are unable to read or write or are nonadherent because of various social and economical barriers. Several patients cannot afford their medications and sometimes do not have enough money to eat healthy. Dr. Quinones is able to work one-on-one with all of her patients, tailoring the education according to their needs. Her mission is to improve the health of her patients by ensuring their adherence to medications and gradual modifications in lifestyle, together with providing the education they need to make better choices. Dr. Quinones has an interest in health literacy and has provided various educational programs about the importance of better communication with patients having limited health literacy. She emphasizes the importance of learning to communicate effectively with patients.

Dr. Quinones enjoys the networking and educational opportunities ACCP provides. She believes leadership is an important part of her success. Being an active member of ACCP has been rewarding. She attends the ACCP Annual Meeting every year. She has met various members throughout the United States, and ACCP has been instrumental in her growth as a practitioner. Through the years, she has encouraged students and residents to become part of ACCP and has helped move the organization and the role of clinical pharmacists forward. She believes that being active in professional pharmacy organizations and giving back to the pharmacy profession is an integral part of her role as a clinical pharmacy specialist.

Through the years, she has learned the importance of finding a work-life balance as a clinical pharmacist. She focuses on teaching her residents and students the importance of family, work, and personal life and how to balance all the demands the clinical pharmacist will face. Most people cannot believe how well she is able to balance her home life with her work life—something she has worked on for many years. She believes that everyone should have some time to reflect on himself or herself, make time in the day to do something enjoyable, and recognize that family time is important.

Dr. Quinones enjoys traveling, taking pictures, working out, and spending quality time with her family. She likes the outdoors, camping, and trips to South Padre Island, Texas, which is her favorite beach. She has a very supportive husband and two beautiful children who keep her busy. An active member of the Weight Watchers program since 2011, she lost more than 60 pounds. Through this experience, she learned new ways to cook and prepare balanced, nutritional meals for her family. She enjoys finding ways to keep her kids interested in healthy eating habits.

September 2012

Christopher Frei, Pharm.D., M.Sc., is an associate professor of pharmacy at The University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio School of Medicine. Dr. Frei completed his Pharm.D. degree (2001), master’s degree (2003), residency (2003), and postdoctoral training (2005) at the UT Austin and the UT Health Science Center. He joined the faculty at both universities in January 2006. Dr. Frei is a Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist who studies clinically important infectious diseases, including pneumonia, skin and soft tissue infections, and HIV. He is particularly interested in emerging antibiotic resistance among gram-positive bacteria including Staphylococcus aureus. His research approach involves pharmacoepidemiology, comparative-effectiveness, and microbial genomics.

Dr. Frei has been a principal investigator/coinvestigator for 12 different studies supported by the NIH, the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists, and the pharmaceutical industry. He has published 57 peer-reviewed papers in leading medical and scientific journals, including the American Journal of Medicine, Antimicrobial Agents in Chemotherapy, Chest, Clinical Microbiology and Infection, Drugs, Pharmacotherapy, Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, and Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine. He has also given more than 260 national, state, and local presentations. This past year, Dr. Frei was promoted to an associate professor with tenure at the UT Austin. He was also recognized as “Mentor of the Year” by the Texas Society of Health-System Pharmacists, “Young Investigator of the Year” by the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists, and “Distinguished Young Alumnus of the Year” by the UT Austin College of Pharmacy.

Dr. Frei spends 75% of his time conducting patient-oriented research and teaching pharmacy graduate students. He participated in ACCP’s Focused Investigator Training (FIT) Program in 2008 and considers the program an integral part of his research and career development. In 2010, Dr. Frei received a 2-year grant for a project titled “Genetics, Resistance, and Treatment in a South Texas Practice-Based Research Network.” His grant is a Mentored Research and Career Development Program (KL2) in Clinical and Translational Sciences, funded by NIH’s National Center for Research Resources.

Dr. Frei is a firm believer in the importance of mentorship. He attributes his success to his mentors at the UT Austin, ACCP’s FIT Program, and the NIH/KL2 career development program. He is grateful to his wife and family who have supported him throughout his career, the administrators at the UT Austin for the research support they have provided, and his current and former graduate students, whom he considers his extended family.

Dr. Frei believes ACCP has played a key role in his professional development. He joined the organization as a resident in 2001, presented his first poster at an ACCP Annual Meeting, and published his first paper in the journal Pharmacotherapy. He highly values the opportunities he has had to work with colleagues from across the country on initiatives such as ACCP’s Practice-Based Research Network. He encourages pharmacy students to become involved in ACCP through his role as the ACCP College of Pharmacy Liaison for the UT Austin College of Pharmacy.

People may be surprised to know that Dr. Frei is an avid consumer of books and lectures on leadership and mentorship. Some of his favorites include The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Stephen Covey, 1989), Making the Right Moves (Laura Bonetta, 2006), At the Helm (Kathy Barker, 2010), The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (Patrick Lencioni, 2002), and The Last Lecture (Randy Pausch, 2007). He spends most of his free time “at the ranch” with his family or “with the kids” at their baseball and softball games.

July 2012

Dr. Eric Tichy is a clinical pharmacy specialist at Yale-New Haven Transplantation Center (YNHTC), where he is a member of the heart, kidney, and liver transplant teams. In 2009, he established YNHTC’s PGY2 Transplant Pharmacy Residency, and currently, he serves as the program’s director. He holds adjunct faculty appointments at the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy and Duquesne University Mylan School of Pharmacy. Dr. Tichy received his Pharm.D. degree from the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy and completed his pharmacy practice residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital. He is a board-certified pharmacotherapy specialist.

During his career, Dr. Tichy has established himself as a leader in clinical pharmacy with a focus in transplantation. His involvement in several projects has helped advance pharmacy practice in the field of transplantation, including his service as the coauthor of a white paper describing the role of the transplant pharmacist and as a founding member of the American Society of Transplantation’s (AST) Transplant Pharmacist Community of Practice (CoP). His present practice focuses on the education and training of new practitioners from many health science disciplines. He is currently chair-elect of the AST’s Transplant Pharmacist CoP.

Dr. Tichy chose transplant pharmacy because it gave him the opportunity to use all of his clinical training and skills. He enjoys the opportunity to interact with and contribute directly toward the care of patients with multiple disease states. Moreover, in transplant pharmacy, an expert knowledge of pharmacotherapy is essential because of the many potential drug interactions and adverse effects that are encountered on a daily basis. He summarized his passion for his chosen specialty by saying,

Transplant pharmacy is simply nirvana for the ambitious clinical pharmacist, and I have found transplant a perfect fit for my skill sets and interests. There are a large number of myths and misconceptions in the community regarding organ and tissue donation and transplantation. As a transplant clinician, I see firsthand the profoundly positive impact transplantation has on the lives of individual patients and their families. To help face these myths and misconceptions, I get involved with efforts to provide education in the community regarding these issues, and I see myself as a witness spreading the good news about transplantation. I have presented at schools, churches, and within my local pharmacist society. In addition to raising awareness about the need for organ and tissue donors, I love to encourage talented young people to consider careers in transplantation because we need to continually recruit the best and brightest to advance the profession.

Dr. Tichy believes that ACCP membership has provided him an invaluable opportunity to network with colleagues from around the country. The relationships he has formed have led to significant career benefits, and he considers his fellow Immunology/Transplantation PRN members to be part of his extended family. He has developed many great friendships through the PRN and enjoys reconnecting with many of them on the PRN’s e-mail list and at ACCP meetings.

Outside work, Dr. Tichy enjoys being outdoors. An avid hunter and fisherman, he commented, “I love getting outdoors. Depending on the season, you might find me in the woods with a bow or on a boat with a pole on my day off.”

May 2012

Dr. Nicole Gillespie is an assistant professor and clinical pharmacist at Creighton University School of Pharmacy and Health Professions in Omaha, Nebraska. Dr. Gillespie became interested in chronic disease management and lifestyle medicine while earning her Pharm.D. degree and completing her postgraduate training at Creighton. During her residency, she worked closely with the Creighton University Cardiovascular Risk Reduction Program and helped implement the university’s Diabetes Mellitus Risk Reduction Program. After completing her residency, she elected to stay on as faculty while working full-time with the Risk Reduction Programs at Creighton. Each service enrolls Creighton University employees with chronic disease states, including hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes. Each pharmacist-run service takes a multidisciplinary approach toward patient care using dieticians, physical therapists, exercise physiologists, and licensed mental health care practitioners. The Risk Reduction teams at Creighton also work closely with each participant’s physicians to optimize medication therapy, increase participant education, and incorporate lifestyle medicine to improve participant outcomes. She also serves as a preceptor for students at this unique clinical practice site. The faculty appointment gives her the opportunity to teach about what she loves—prevention—and expose students to the effect pharmacists can have on the health and quality of life of their patients. In addition to precepting students, Dr. Gillespie lectures in various didactic courses and works with the residents from the Creighton University Community Pharmacy Residency Program.

Nicole is active in local, state, and regional organizations. She is president-elect of the Midwest College of Clinical Pharmacy and an appointed member of the legislative committee for the Nebraska Pharmacists Association. She was awarded Distinguished Young Pharmacist of Nebraska by the Nebraska Pharmacists Association and Pharmacists Mutual, and she received the Governor’s Point of Light Award for her group volunteer work in the community.

Dr. Gillespie chose the pharmacy profession, specifically preventive pharmacy, because she believes there is a void in this type of care in the current health care system. She believes that health care has become increasingly effective at treating acute problems, but less so at avoiding these problems altogether, and that clinical pharmacists are armed with the tools necessary to bridge this gap. They are experts in optimizing chronic disease medication regimens, capable of monitoring, assessing efficacy, and increasing patient education and medication adherence. With the help of additional lifestyle medicine training, pharmacists can be extremely effective at decreasing chronic disease risk and improving patient outcomes, including quality of life. As a result, they can make a significant impact on preventing costly hospital and emergency department visits, which are of paramount importance in the state of our current health care system.

The obesity epidemic, as well as the increasing incidence of chronic disease in the pediatric population, has been a big influence on Dr. Gillespie’s career, and she believes that as health care providers, we need to focus more on improving in this area for our patients. Moreover, together with obesity and chronic disease comes decreased quality of life. If the obesity and chronic disease trends continue to move in the current direction, there is a gloomy forecast for our future. One of her career goals is to seek out solutions to help patients take control of their health. One individual who has been extremely influential on Dr. Gillespie’s career is her mentor and colleague Dr. Thomas L. Lenz, Pharm.D., M.A., FACLM. Dr. Lenz has been a proponent of lifestyle medicine in pharmacy practice for years. He wrote the book Lifestyle Modifications in Pharmacotherapy, started an elective lifestyle modifications course for pharmacy students at Creighton, conceived and developed the Cardiovascular Risk Reduction Program, and continues to advocate for additional lifestyle-related education to health care professionals and students.

Dr. Gillespie believes that ACCP is, in many ways, an excellent venue to foster ideas and promote the profession of pharmacy. The mission and philosophy of the organization clearly indicate that the advocacy for the advancement of human health and expansion of pharmacy practice are among the reasons ACCP exists. This community of advocacy is extremely important in shaping the future of our profession. Furthermore, being a member of ACCP has afforded her the opportunity to take part in this community and have a voice in its advocacy endeavors. She is grateful for the networking, idea sharing, and continuing education ACCP provides and hopes to give back to the organization by continuing to further the risk reduction programs at Creighton and by encouraging involvement to her colleagues and students.

March 2012

Dr. Shareen El-Ibiary is an associate professor of pharmacy practice at Midwestern University College of Pharmacy in Glendale, Arizona. She received her Pharm.D. degree from the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina, in 2000 and completed a general pharmacy practice residency at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in 2001, where she subsequently completed a certificate program for additional training in clinical research. She has been board certified in pharmacotherapy since 2003. Dr. El-Ibiary started her academic career at UCSF in the area of drug information, where her interest in women’s health developed from receiving several consumer questions pertaining to that area. She made the change to focus on women’s health and worked in a specialty clinic in the latter part of her time at USCF. During her time in California, she was very active in local, state, and national organizations. She was president of the Golden Gate Society of Health-System Pharmacists and, in 2007, became a fellow of the California Society of Health-System Pharmacists. She has been the public policy liaison and chair of the ACCP Women’s Health Practice and Research Network (PRN) and is currently an ACCP College of Pharmacy Faculty Liaison. She has been awarded project preceptor of the year and the Dean’s Apple Award for Teaching Excellence at UCSF.

Three years ago, she made the move to Midwestern University in Glendale, Arizona, where she maintains an internal medicine practice at Banner Thunderbird Medical Center. Although her practice is internal medicine, she maintains a strong interest in women’s health and continues to collaborate with others in the field. Her areas of interest and research include women’s health, specifically hormones and contraception, pharmacogenetics, and innovative teaching. Dr. El-Ibiary currently teaches a variety of courses at the College and coordinates a women’s health elective, as well as a first-year pharmacy course, “Integrated Sequences 2 and Professional Skills Development.” She is involved in many different publications, including writing a PSAP chapter in women’s health and serving as the women’s health section editor and chapter author for Koda-Kimble’s Applied Therapeutics. She also serves on the editorial board for the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association and is a current faculty member of ACCP’s Updates in Therapeutics®: The Pharmacotherapy Preparatory Review and Recertification Course.

Dr. El-Ibiary’s early exposure to the health care setting came from her mother, a physician. Dr. El-Ibiary showed an early interest in the sciences, and her love of teaching led her to seek a career path that would encompass each of these areas. She first became interested in clinical pharmacy while working as a pharmacy technician and pursuing her undergraduate degree. In particular, she liked the idea of making interventions and counseling patients. What cemented her future career choice, though, came later in pharmacy school, when she identified with one of her professors who was a clinical specialist and whose faculty job description sounded like the ideal career path. She saw that, as a faculty member, she could combine the clinical/science aspect of pharmacy with her love of teaching in an academic setting. She sought out information on how her professor obtained her position, which set her on a path that has allowed her to touch the lives of numerous students, patients, and colleagues.

ACCP has been an integral part of Dr. El-Ibiary’s career. Many of her opportunities have come to her through her involvement with the College. When she first started as a faculty member, she saw a meeting announcement for the ACCP Annual Meeting and noted that a pre-seminar workshop for junior faculty was scheduled. Although she was unfamiliar with the organization at the time, she attended the session, which she believes was one of her best decisions. She met other junior faculty starting out, made several friends/connections, and learned about finding a mentor and ways to deal with struggles in academia. It was an excellent seminar. She enjoyed every aspect of the meeting and met experts in various fields. As she focused her interests on women’s health, she found the Women’s Health where she connected with other colleagues interested in and dedicated to women’s health. The connections she made through the PRN were priceless. From this group, ideas, opportunities, and growth in women’s health practice emerged. She was able to take more of a leadership role within the group, which provided her many opportunities with respect to collaborations, publications, and speaking engagements. Her knowledge in the area grew as well from learning about others’ practices and research endeavors. She is still in contact with many of the colleagues she met at her first meeting and continues to collaborate with them. She noted that many of her accomplishments would not have been possible were it not for her ACCP membership.

Dr. El-Ibiary has given back to ACCP by fostering student involvement. She is currently an ACCP College of Pharmacy Faculty Liaison for Midwestern, and she has served as a reviewer for the Clinical Pharmacy Challenge, Pharmacotherapy, and PSAP. She was the public policy liaison for 3 years and the chair/chair-elect for the Women’s Health PRN. She is currently a faculty member for ACCP’s Updates in Therapeutics®: The Pharmacotherapy Preparatory Review and Recertification Course, and she has presented regularly at ACCP Annual Meetings. She encourages others to join ACCP and hopes to continue to serve the College and help keep it growing so that others may benefit from it as she has.